Cartography
by Frostings
Summary: Collection of KakaSaku one shots, drabbles and prompt responses. Includes AU. Angst, fluff, romance, and friendship KakaSaku!
1. Cartography

_This is based on that one conversation I had in the kakasaku tag about a wandering Sakura. _

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**KONOHAGAKURE**

Sakura falls in love with Kakashi despite herself.

It's a minor irritation at first, mostly directed to herself because REALLY, Sakura? Of all the people and of all the times you allowed yourself to fall in love with _Kakashi_, it had to be now. Now when Naruto had finally grown up to the man she always thought he was, now that Sasuke was learning to become the man that she'd always hope he'd be. But Kakashi stays the same, past and present, unchanging and timeless, and it irritates her that he didn't have to do anything for her to start noticing him.

How very typical of her to fall in love with a man like that.

Of course it made perfect sense that the first thing she does is ask Tsunade to allow her to go on a medical mission in Sunagakure.

Tsunade had to quirk an eyebrow at that. "Why?" the Hokage asked. Her mentor never was one to let anything escape her notice.

Sakura shrugs and looks away, hoping that she didn't have to lie, not really. "I'm just feeling a little restless here, Tsunade-sama, and you know that I've always wanted to stay in Suna for a while and practice with their medic-nins there."

"I see," Tsunade said, not even attempting to hide how unconvinced she is at Sakura's explanation. "With Sasuke back and all, I thought you'd take advantage of…you know, time lost."

Sakura feigns thinking about it for a second. She doesn't know why she even keeps up this charade with Tsunade-sama, honestly. The woman can see through her like Sakura were made of glass, but she wishes that just for this moment, it's not the case. But she's ashamed of her feelings, as one always does when one doesn't understand them. "Sasuke goes whenever he wants to go, He never asked me to stay, so I won't," she finally says. Then after a slight hesitation, she adds, "I'm leaving tonight, if I can."

"Oh?" her mentor sounds genuinely surprised now. "So soon, Sakura? Do your teammates know?"

"My parents know I'm leaving. You know I'm leaving." Sakura says, trying to keep her face neutral. "Do I need permission to ask anyone for me to go anywhere?"

"Sakura…" Tsunade looks like she's about to launch into one of her epic sermons, but this time, the woman holds herself in check; just as Sakura expects. After all, far from it for Tsunade-sama to stop Sakura from running away, when she herself was a woman who's been running away for most of her life.

Sakura thinks, love makes you do the strangest things; especially if you don't understand it. She waits for her mentor to say anything more.

But the Hokage doesn't. The older woman just nods at her with a look of understanding. "Just write back regularly, do you understand? And if you're relocating, I want to know as soon as possible."

Sakura nods and turns away when Tsunade-sama shifts her attention back to her paperwork without another word. She's just about to reach the door when her mentor's voice calls back out to her.

"Sakura," Tsunade-sama says, without looking up.

The student turns around to look at her, pauses, waiting.

"Stay safe," the older woman says as she calmly shuffles paper around. "When you're ready to come home, I want you to come straight home, understand?"

She nods, knowing that if she didn't, the Hokage would take it upon herself to hunt her down personally. "Understood."

"Have a safe journey, Sakura."

**KONOHAGAKURE, II**

"Going somewhere?"

In a land full of ninja, Sakura would be lying if she didn't feel at least a little relieved that someone has taken note of her plans to leave. She thinks she's been discreet enough. After all, she's not even carrying any luggage, having shipped all her personal effects a week before to Suna.

Sai is casually leaning against one of the gate's posts, arms crossed. He doesn't look judgmental or angry or suspicious. Sai being Sai, indeed, he doesn't even sound the least bit curious, asking the question as blandly as if he had just asked her about the weather.

"How'd you know?" she asks.

He shrugs and straightens up, puts his hands in his pockets. "You haven't been at the library recently, I went up to check on you and I saw you shipping off your things to Suna."

"You shouldn't have spied on me, Sai, you could've just asked," a tone of irritation creeps into her voice.

The boy shrugs again. "Old habits," he says lightly, as if that explained everything. His dark eyes look away for a second, then back on her again. "So why _are _you leaving?"

She thinks about the reasons. She wants to tell Sai, really, she does, but she finds that the words are stuck to her throat. Oh but she wants to try, but she doesn't know how to begin. Falling in love with Sasuke had been an impulse, capricious. Falling in love with Kakashi had taken her by surprise, and she doesn't want it, but it feels just as impulsive and capricious as the first time. How strange.

No, she doesn't want to think about that anymore. Sai is still waiting for his answer.

Sakura tries to smile, but it feels heavy. "It's just…my turn, I guess," she answers, as if that explained everything. Everyone in Team 7 gets to leave (and maybe return). It's about high time she had that chance herself.

**SUNAGAKURE**

There is no welcoming party for Sakura save for two bored-looking guard shinobi, who give her a grunt as they barely glance through her papers. It's the closest to courtesy she can expect from Kazekage, and indeed for any shinobi, to be so implicitly trusted to freely access one's land is honor enough.

She spends little time in the tiny one-bedroom apartment appointed to her. It is punishingly hot in Suna, not that she was expecting anything else, but she just can't stand to be in tiny, closed-in spaces for the meantime. She flees to the hospital, and spends the rest of her day touring wards. This place doesn't hold much memory for her, and she is glad for it.

Sakura takes extra time studying prosthetics, where Suna's mastery over puppets has been utilized to aid those who have lost limbs in the war. It's interesting work, and Sakura is grateful for finally finding the distraction that she's been looking for. She notes that they have named a ward after Chiyo as well. She knows the older woman would approve.

It's explained to her that with the combination of chakra and science, a prosthetic limb could be a near-perfect replacement for what had been lost. The possibilities are endless, and Sakura feels privileged to be considered a peer, to be asked questions, to have her opinions sought after.

If only one can replace the human heart, Sakura thinks, she would be perfectly happy.

Later, at the banquet held in her honor, Gaara presents her roasted scorpions on a stick.

Sakura smiles. (It's been a while since she's smiled.)

**IWAGAKURE**

After Suna, the natural next destination is Iwagakure.

Where Suna is flat and open, Iwagakure is hard and walled and sharp-edged, and a welcome respite to the all the smiling she's had to do in Suna. She's here as a visiting medic-nin, and for the most part the villagers leave her alone. She is not thrown a welcoming dinner, and only has a short courtesy call on Iwa's Tsuchikage.

Iwagakure has a surprising artistic side to it, and Sakura spends her free time touring its open-air museums. Among the trees and the rocks, stone sculptures dominate a small valley in the village, both made by traditional methods and jutsus. They tell the history of the village, gods and men thrown in together. She brings over onigiri and hot tea and sits in the man-made park, contemplating immortality and history and how she fits in all of it.

Maybe it's post-traumatic stress disorder, she thinks to herself, this strange need to run and be alone and be quiet. She doesn't know—she hasn't gone out of her way to get diagnosed before she left Konoha.

She tries not to think of him, nor of the people she's left behind. In Iwa, she can pretend to fold in herself and make herself very small. Here she fits in the box of medic-nin, and all that's expected of her is to show up, do her job, and go home. She remembers to write Tsunade, and sends gifts to Team 7 every now and then.

To Naruto, she ships him a small, hand-carved seal of the Uzumaki. For Sai, she sends some artist tools favored by the sculptors in Iwa. For Yamato, she sends a piece of fossilized wood.

She sends Sasuke nothing. What else is there to say, between the two of them? All the things she wanted to say dissipated into thin air when he came back, when she realized the years have rendered them useless and impotent.

To Kakashi, she simply writes to him: _Wish you were here._

For all her running, it's still true.

**KUSAGAKURE**

She's not quite sure why how she finds herself in Kusagakure, but here she is. And she doesn't want to be here.

Broken bridges that lead to nowhere and painful history, that's what Kusagakure is to her. Yet she can't find herself to just leave without having a look around.

Even a place such as this has its own charm. Like Suna and Iwa before, it did not escape unscathed from the war. Many of its buildings stand unrepaired as Sakura volunteers her services at the village's clinic. The shinobi already know of her due to the time she spent in Suna and Iwa, and only treat her with a minimum amount of suspicion. After all, they need all the help they can get. She finds that her status as medic-nin is practically a badge that allows her access to anywhere she wants to go.

When she's not crashing on her bed out of sheer exhaustion from treating countless patients, Sakura finally musters the courage to revisit the broken bridges of her youth, finding that she can't stay away, not really. One finds ways to remember despite one's best efforts, she is finding.

She views the Kannabi bridge first, is drawn to it by its inextricable tangle with Kakashi's past. Sakura can't help but wonder whose bad idea it was to name Kannabi bridge—the bridge where gods do not help. And help wasn't there when it was needed, during one of the most painful chapters of Kakashi's life.

_You know you love someone when you take their pain as your own._

The bridge remains broken, its splinters and remains now covered in vegetation. Perhaps Kusagakure finally conceded on its accursed nature and left it that way, or decided to create another pathway altogether. Sakura doesn't know. The landscape of Kusagakure resembles the human body that way—new pathways created on top of the old, knitted together by scars and time.

The Tenchi Bridge brings another onslaught of memories—Naruto calling forth his Four-Tailed form and Sakura's sheer terror of it. She remembers reading somewhere, in a Psychology book, that people are drawn to revisit places where terrible things happened. She didn't understand it then, but as she views the bridges and their placement in her own irretrievable past, she begins to understand. It is as if viewing these relics of the past can bring comfort to those who suffered in them. She hopes it does.

_What is it about Kusagakure that brings out the monsters in us?_ She writes in her journal later that day.

After viewing the bridges, Sakura leaves Kusagakure the next day, not wishing to linger, the sunrise on her back.

**YUMEGAKURE**

She strays nearer Konoha when she reaches Yumegakure.

It's a small, unassuming village and she passes through after a minor hitch with the guards. Apparently they're having a hard time accepting that a kunoichi from Konoha is casually jumping from one village to another, apparently aimless, with nothing better to do but to aid in healing a broken landscape.

She doesn't begrudge them the suspicion. It wasn't like they were very trusting the first time around. The recent years have not been kind to Yumegakure, and no longer does it resemble the village that she first knew. The village is still full of camps and makeshift homes, its citizens still struggling to find its foothold to get back up again; months' worth of repair and recovery gone in a devastating minute. It weighs down on Sakura's heart, and she works twice as hard to help in the camps, forgets about her own needs for weeks on end.

This is where Kakashi's letter finds her.

_Hello, Sakura, _his letter reads. _Thank you for the postcard. We were all very surprised at your abrupt departure, as you can imagine, and Sai didn't even tell us he saw you go until a good month after. Not that you're asking me, but I think what you're doing is a good thing. Clear your head out, you know?_

Oh, Sakura laughs. Oh, yes, she knows.

_I'm not actually sure if you're going to be in Yumegakure anytime soon so I'm just sending it there on a hunch. It's not the most picturesque place right now but I think that's what's going to draw you right into it, since you love broken things despite yourself. I also had half the mind to send Pakkun or one of the ninken to look for you but I thought (wisely, if I should say so myself) not to, because I know you wouldn't like it._

_I'm sorry this letter can't be chatty. Protocols, you know. Can't say much and as I've said, this one was sent blindly. I look forward to seeing you or hearing from you soon._

_Yours most cordially,_

_Kakashi._

Sakura laughs again. Most cordially, ha! Did he think he was writing to the Empress of the Five Countries or something? The man can't even bring himself to be more affectionate than he has to be.

She thinks of a way to respond. She sits long in thought, gazing out from her rented room to the forests and mists below. Yumegakure deserves its name, Sakura thinks. If not for the devastation of the war, it would have retained its strange, dreamlike quality, threatening confusion and disappearances. The mist hangs over everything like a heavy curtain, and the forest is older, unlike Konoha's. In fact, it looks nothing like Konoha's. The only thing they have in common is that it is a forest. She has to admit that she is starting to feel a little homesick.

She brings pen to paper to reply. She hesitates. After a few heartbeats, she brings herself to write:

_Dear Kakashi,_

_Thank you for your letter_

_Thank you for writing_

_I'm doing well_

_How are you?_

Finally, after staring at her writing, she crosses everything out and throws it away. Maybe it's better this way, she rationalizes to herself. Maybe it's better this way, that Kakashi knows nothing, that she's near enough but he doesn't know it. It's not like she's a missing-nin, it's not like she doing anything bad or illegal out here, it's not…then she catches herself making excuses and she laughs. She's seen war and destruction, diseases and death, and she can't even bring herself to write a response to her old teacher.

The heart can be a devastating thing.

So Sakura writes: _I was very happy to receive your letter. _When she writes it, she means it, and suddenly it is true and she's happier than she's ever been. He hasn't forgotten her, and it means the world.

She stays in Yumegakure for four months, and when she leaves, the place is better than when she first arrived. She's trained some, and treated many, and there are safeguards in place that ensure the continuing health of the villagers. It's one of her first successes as a traveling medic-nin and she would hold up her experiences at Yumegakure as a blueprint of what she has to accomplish in every new places she finds herself in.

**KUMOGAKURE**

There is a gaping wound in Kumogakure and the first thing Sakura does upon her arrival is to pay her respects.

The men and women of Kumo are hardy and resilient, much like the mountains that watch sentinel over them. They are in the middle of rebuilding when Sakura arrives, so she's surprised at the fanfare that comes with her arrival, surprised that they know her by face and by name.

The warm feelings of welcome are short-lived though, as Sakura finds herself at the bombed-out portion of the village where the Allied Forces building used to be. She recalls Ino's tear-stained face, Shikamaru's disbelief, and she can't help but weep herself as she leaves a bouquet of chrysanthemums at the site of their deaths. So much loss, and so much pain. She wondered if she would ever get to know true peace in her lifetime. The war is never far from Sakura's mind, especially not now when she sees living reminders daily. And in that war is his face, Kakashi, who's survived one war too many, lost friends beyond count. How he bears it, she will never know.

But the fact that he bears it, and still opens his heart for people to come (and perhaps break) is just one of the reasons why she loves him still.

**KUMOGAKURE, II**

Later that day she assists in childbirth. The mother is a kunoichi like her, and on her face Sakura sees the grim determination that she only usually sees on the battlefield. The smell of blood and antiseptic fills her nostrils as she holds out her empty hands for the crowning, for the slip-slip-slippery feel of new life falling into them, exhausted by its struggle.

She cleans up the blood and the sweat and hands the newborn to his mother. The unnamed kunoichi is a sight—legs splayed, bloody, wounded. Dealing out life is similar to dealing out death—mostly unsightly, ungraceful, and humiliating. Sakura lets the other nurses clean up. The new mother doesn't care. She is smiling. Sakura thinks about Kushina, even though she's never met her before. Had it been like this on the day she died?

Sakura stands outside on the hospital steps, exhausted. She wishes she picked up cigarette smoking from Shikamaru, just to give her hands something to do. She thinks about her father, thinks about what he said to her before she left:

"I hope you get settled soon," Kizashi had said, laughing at the way Sakura had rolled her eyes at him. "Not because I want you to marry for the sake of marrying, no, my love." He had held her by the shoulders with fond eyes before hugging her tightly. "Because I can see your heart has yet so many ways to unfold."

Back then she thought that her father had said that because Sasuke was back, and that she was eager to get back on to what they used to be. But whatever she was with Sasuke, three years might as well have been three million. There had been nothing to go back to, their younger affections a mere museum piece to be admired and carefully kept behind a glass curtain. She could not see Sasuke being a father, much less her husband. No. Sasuke only knows how to cut, is extraordinarily gifted in the precise art of destruction, but he does not heal. He would cut her before she could even unfold her heart to him.

She has to acknowledge that it is this realization that set her on this path in the first place, when she first turns to Kakashi and unfolds one part of her heart, a flower in first bloom all over again.

**GETSUGAKURE**

The crescent moon lies heavily on the horizon, as if eager to settle and sleep on the village it's been named after.

Sakura watches it with shuttered eyes as she curls one arm to pillow her head on. Today had not been a good day. A riot broke out in one of the village's breadlines, which has been growing longer and longer as of late. It took several shinobi to calm down, but left two civilians dead. Sakura knows that there is hell to pay tomorrow.

Once upon a time, the shinobi world was united against a common enemy that threatened to destroy everything that mattered. Today, the lines are not as clear. Getsugakure deployed many shinobi to war, never to return, and the remaining are green and reckless, quick to anger against the civilians they were meant to protect. Sakura does not intervene, not if she can help it. They might have been once united in the war, but the divisions are back up. Sakura is once again from Konohagakure, and has no say over how Getsugakure polices its own. She hates this, but she's long ago learned about the value of compromise.

She fought against the police though, discreetly taking out those who were too quick to raise their weapons against unarmed civilians.

It's in these moments, hours after the fact that she struck out against fellow shinobi again, where she doubts and places blame on herself that she misses Kakashi the most. They have had many talks on nights like this one, about their lives as shinobi and their place in the world.

She loved him then. She knows that now. That he could speak so frankly about his own feelings of unworthiness as shinobi, as a human being. That he could trust her with his own naked thoughts seemed like a miracle in the making, a revelation unto itself. She thought she knew enough about Kakashi due to the events leading up to the war, and following it, but it is quite another thing to know him with his own words.

She wonders if it's because she's afraid of tomorrow, why he's in her thoughts tonight. Loved ones appear softer, devoid of imperfections from far away, and she's afraid that she's romanticizing him again when she should be afraid for her own life, for the fate of the village. Sentimentality has no place in this world, but Kakashi would want her to do the right thing. And that is what she intends to do.

The next day, Sakura stands with the civilians as the police force march in. Their footsteps sound like drumbeats.

**ISHIGAKURE**

"Took you a while to get here, didn't you?" the shinobi guard at the gates leers down to her, after getting clearance that Sakura is no longer considered a criminal and no longer a threat against Getsugakure. She briefly considers punching his face in, but she's in no mood to see another holding cell just when she got out of one. Instead, Sakura produces the best fake smile she has in her arsenal.

It seems to work. The guard scoffs and waves her on. "Welcome to Ishigakure, Haruno-san. Don't cause any trouble."

Pretty rich, coming from a guard who made a living off sheltering renegade missing-nin, Sakura thinks. She lets it slide though, simply smiles in return as she gets her papers back. She tucks them securely in a hidden pocket, and walks in.

It's slightly depressing how Ishigakure is reminiscent of Konoha, with its narrow alleyways and traditional architecture. There's even a ramen place tucked in one of its corners. Sakura allows herself to relax for the first time in months. She seats herself in an inconspicuous corner of the ramen shop and pulls out a letter from her vest.

_Sakura—_

The letter is written with the impatience of a man whose letters have gone unanswered for weeks.

_From what I've heard, you have been maintaining a regular communication with the Hokage, so I can only assume that you're alive. Or at least you still have your writing hand intact._

_What are you doing? Are you trying to start another war between the countries? I've heard what you've been doing there. I know your heart is in the right place, and that you want to help these people. But you cannot, I repeat, you CANNOT get in the way of how a village conducts its affairs, especially an outsider such as yourself! Tsunade-sama has been very lenient on you by pleading your case, but —-_

He's crossed out that last part, but Sakura is pretty sure that he'd written, "if it were me, I'd let you rot there," but he'd changed his mind and felt bad about it. He'd never really scolded her so hard since she was a chuunin, and his anger is perhaps compounded by the fact that she never wrote him back.

She skims the rest of the letter, _it's good you're following your heart but I just hate that you're being so disingenuous about it at the same time._

She forgets to breathe when she reads the next sentences.

_You know what I mean. _

_You shouldn't have run from me, Sakura._

Sakura feels disappointed in his words, and she feels a little more disappointed that she lets it slide, knows that he doesn't mean it. She knows that he's writing out of frustration, but if he's put in the same exact position she was in Getsugakure, he would have done the exact same thing.

It's strange that she understands so much of Kakashi's heart and how it works.

(It also frightens her. This is why she runs.)

She grips the letter in two hands, ready to rip it apart.

**SHIMOGAKURE**

She learns how to drink in Shimogakure.

Sakura thought she knew a thing or two about drinking, but _goddamn _people from Shimo know how to drink. There's nothing quite like it, shooting down a shot or two, in the middle of a freezing nowhere. She likes what follows, that slow warm glow that suffuses her chest and makes her cheeks pink. She likes how it helps her forget her troubles, even for a short while.

"Don't enjoy it _too _much," a doctor of her acquaintance, Shigeko, jokes as she pours Sakura another one, clearly ignoring her own warnings.

Sakura gulps down the shot, a hot white line down her throat. Outside, the snow falls thickly, blanketing the village in pillowy white sheets. Snow has a strange muffling effect as well, as she finds out. The world is quieter in Shimogakure.

Shigeko chews on a lemon, the bright yellow wedge hanging between her teeth. She's young like Sakura, a veteran of the war. She has that upfront quality of the people living here, an unapologetic way of living. "Snow still looks pretty to you, huh, Fire Country girl?"

"Yeah," Sakura is the last person to have pretensions of sophistication. "It's beautiful."

"You came a long way," Shigeko comments as she flings the lemon wedge away. "I mean…I love this place, I grew up here, but I don't understand anyone who wants to come here and then actually stay. That is, unless they're trying to escape something." Dark eyes scan Sakura's face. "And by the way that you're drinking, you're definitely trying to escape something."

"Maybe I can hide out here," Sakura replies; she's too drunk now to even try to deny it.

Shigeko laughs derisively. "You can. You won't."

Sakura wants to tell Shigeko that she's tired and she wants to go home. In the short-term, she means that she's tired of sitting here with a person she already saw for the majority of the day, and that she wants to go home, to her rented apartment. In the long-term, she really wants to say, I'm tired. I want to go home to Konoha, where snow is a novelty.

She tries to say it, but it comes out differently. "I've tried…" she begins.

"Tried what?" her companion asks. The night is silent now, huddling in the cold with them.

"Not to be…" Sakura gestures, trying to grasp something that is unutterable, even to herself. "Not to be like this."

"Like this? Like you?"

"Yes." The kunoichi slumps against her seat, a dawning sense of defeat upon her. "I have this friend called Sasuke…and when I was young I admired him for always being so cool and detached." She doesn't know why she's talking about Sasuke, but she's drunk so she doesn't really care. "I thought that was a good thing, not to be fuelled by emotions all the time. But…"

But? If she is really honest about it, everything that Sasuke did, everything that she had admired about him, were not fuelled by an exquisite sense of unfeeling. On the contrary, everything that Sasuke did—right and wrong—was fuelled by his heart. As did everyone's.

The heart. That strange, tender thing, that small word that was used to encompass the many messes and failures of one's muddled humanity.

Shigeko is smiling. "You look like a woman who's just gotten a breakthrough," she says before she pours out another shot for Sakura. She raises it in acknowledgment. "Congratulations," she says, kindly, "You're officially a woman from Shimo."

**KONOHAGAKURE, HOME**

Sakura doesn't really expect anything major to happen when she finally arrives home. Not because she underestimates her teammates and her family's affection for her, but because she's a _ninja _and she wants it that way. So she pops up like a mushroom after the rain, says hello to a stunned Tsunade, drops in her parents, and sneaks back into her own apartment like a thief in the night.

Kakashi doesn't seek her out.

The rest of Team 7 is alerted to her return however, and she spends most of the week catching up with them and her friends.

Still, no word from Kakashi for days on end.

He doesn't show up unexpectedly, as he used to. He does not come to explain, or ask questions. They've had enough of that before she left, the recriminations, the deflections. She didn't want to be a projection of what he had. _I'm not Rin, _she had said. That made him very angry.

She doesn't seek him out.

Instead she reads his words. She never threw away his letters, couldn't find it in her to do it.

_I don't know how to write letters anymore, Sakura. It's been just me for the longest time, and there was no one to write to._

She flips to another one.

_Never realized talking to Sasuke again would be like learning a new language…_

His other letters almost sound wistful.

_Sometimes I get angry when I remember what you said before you left…_

One letter simply asks:

_Where are you?_

Where is she? The simple answer is, of course, Konoha. She is in Konoha, and she is home. But there are homes of a different kind, outlined by maps only the heart could see. She's crossed borders and broken laws, thrown into jail and assisted births all this time as she drew and defined her own cartography.

She pauses as she reads his words again, considering her response.

**KONOHAGAKURE, HOME (II)**

His traps don't go off when she sets foot in his apartment. _I want you to be here, why can't you understand it? _She remembers his words before she left, and how she flat-out rejected it. She had been afraid then.

She could see his outline in the half-light. She slips off her shoes and pads softly to where Kakashi is sleeping. Around Team 7, he's a heavy sleeper. Around her, even more so. The realization of what this means makes her smile.

She pulls back his blanket carefully as she climbs in next to him. He feels warm, and is dressed in his funny shuriken pajama. He awakens with a little sleepy mutter, as one lidded eye opens to meet her own green ones.

"You're back," he says, his voice husky.

"Yes."

"I didn't think you…"

"No," she shakes her head. She knows he didn't expect her to come back to him. "I didn't either."

He reaches out and touches her hair softly. "What changed your mind?"

She laughs a bit. "Nothing changed. I just understood it a little better, that's all."

"You had to go running around the Five Countries just to do _that_?" He's trying to sound sarcastic, but he just looks so relieved that it breaks her heart a little.

"I know." She snuggles closer to him.

"I wrote to you."

"I know."

"You never responded."

"I know." She shifts in his arms, pensive. She's run away only to run into herself, over and over again. She's been thick-headed, and she's been hurt. She's hurt him. She almost didn't want to come tonight. But she's unfolded her heart since leaving, and there he was. "I wanted to give the response in person."

"And what is that?" But of course he already knows the answer, had been waiting all this time for something he already knew and understood.

She meets him halfway for her welcome kiss.


	2. Benediction

I've always wanted to write a drabble based on one of dimisfit's art, because she is my bro and I am hers, but they are always so perfect and spoke volumes by themselves so I didn't want to touch them lol. But this particular one spoke to me so I had write a drabble too. Hope y'all enjoy!

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_A benediction (Latin: bene, well + dicere, to speak) is a short invocation for divine help, blessing and guidance, usually at the end of worship service._

* * *

When Sakura is twelve, she asks Kakashi, "What do boys like?"

She asks this with her green eyes trained on Sasuke, watching the dark-haired boy throw kunai at a target painted on a tree. Naruto is a few steps away, seething with jealousy at his skill.

Kakashi shrugs, uninterested. "Why do you think I'd know that?"

Sakura casts a glance at him, annoyed. "Because you're a boy?" She blushes as she gazes at Sasuke some more, a dreamy look on her face. "How do you make a boy like you, sensei?"

Kakashi makes a disgusted sound and gets on his feet. "By not asking stupid questions. Oi! Sasuke! That's enough!" he yells, eager to get away from Sakura and her questions. "It's Sakura's turn."

When Sakura is fourteen, she asks Kakashi, "Do I look any different?"

Naruto's still recovering from the punch she dealt on him when he gave an indifferent answer to her question. Kakashi has to think this through. Her legs were longer, and there were breasts and hips were there used to be all gangly limbs and straight lines. He doesn't dare say it aloud. It feels pervy just thinking about it.

So he lies with a straight face. "You look exactly the same to me, Sakura-chan."

When Sakura is sixteen, she asks Kakashi, "How are you feeling?"

He's recovering from the war, and his body and soul feels ragtag and worn. They have won, but it feels hollow. She takes good care of him, often taking over most of the tasks that she shouldn't, like bathing and feeding. They are war comrades now, after all, on top of all the things they used to be. She knows his movements, the way he breathes, the way he pauses before he spoke frankly, and seeing him naked nearly every day doesn't even faze her. It doesn't even cause him embarrassment. They've been through worse.

"A little better," he admits. _Now that you're here_, but he doesn't say it aloud.

When Sakura is eighteen, she asks, "Is there anyone that you like?"

She throws it out there carelessly during Gai's birthday celebration. The man himself is already dominating the room with his bad karaoke singing. Everyone is there and having a good time, and he finds himself assaulted with a feeling he hasn't had for a long time—happiness. Contentment. The last time he felt that way, to be quite honest, was when he was a jounin-sensei.

Sakura is still waiting for an answer. She's listlessly playing with the bar nuts and her chopsticks, forming them into an even heart formation. He wonders if it's a sign of boredom or of something else.

He attempts to think of an honest answer, thinks of all the suitable women in Konoha, and comes up empty. He reaches out and flicks a lock of hair out of her face.

"No," he flat-out lies.

When Sakura is twenty, she asks, "Are you alright?"

He must look like a sight, having lost sleep for two straight days keeping watch over her. He was told to expect that she might never wake up, but she's proven them all wrong, yet again. She looks slightly uncomfortable with her bandages and her one green eye is covered with a patch but he's just so _relieved_ that he can't even _breathe_.

Instead of answering, he staggers next to her, and finds that he doesn't even have strength to keep standing. They'd been so close to losing her, they said. That awful mission that he should've volunteered for, if it weren't for her damned pride. When they brought her back in, she had been unrecognizable, so battered and broken and bloody that it makes him sick just to think about it.

While he waited for her to wake up, he's been there thinking of all the lies and the half-truths he's been telling her all her life and regretting them every moment._ Yes, Sakura, the sharingan hurts every time I use it. Yes, I think you're pretty in that dress. Yes, I think you're capable enough, it's me that I worry about every time you leave._

He kneels beside her and cries. Cries out of relief and exhaustion, out of gratitude and pain. Starting today, he promises himself, starting today, he will tell her the truth when she asks for it. All of it.

But when she strokes his hair gently and kindly as he breaks down, it's a benediction. He realizes she's known the truth all along, anyway


	3. First Day

_Prompt: Gossip Girl crossover! Because why not_

* * *

I CAN'T BELIEVE I ACTUALLY ENJOYED WRITING THIS. Now I legit want to write a Gossip Girl/Naruto crossover! I'm just sad I didn't get to write Blair in this, though.

A note on the schools for those not familiar with Gossip Girl: There are actually two schools—one for boys (St. Jude's) and one for girls (Constance Billiard) that are conducted in one building, but separately.

With that said, onto the fic.

* * *

"Are you ready?" Sakura called for about the nth time from the living room.

"Just a second!" Jenny chirped from her bedroom.

Sakura rolled her eyes at Dan, who sat across her and was idly pretending he knew how to play Rufus' guitar. "Jenny, those girls will know exactly where you live based on your shoes alone, so is it really necessary to primp for the another 30 minutes?"

"I've got to make up for your weird hair somehow!" Jenny groused as she finally stepped out from her bedroom. She smoothed down her brand-new Constance Billiard skirt. Sakura wasn't really sure what the point of a uniform was when all the students were given free rein to alter it as they pleased. For example, Jenny had decided to divest the uniform of her tie completely and added a white ruffle on the edges of her skirt. Sakura would probably never understand, not even when Jenny tried to patiently explain to her that wearing and altering the uniform of Constance was the ultimate in New York prep chic-ness.

How did she get into this situation anyway? Oh right, it was a really good school. She glared glumly at her best friend who strummed obliviously away. She was blamed it all on Dan, who had one point or another convinced her that applying on scholarship was a good idea. Oh yeah, she thought so too, until she found out that he had been withholding certain information on her in the form of the Gossip Girl website.

She was always under the impression that Dan's spank bank material, Serena van der Woodsen, was some sort of glamorous model who occasionally appeared on the Victoria's Secret shows. Thanks to the magic of Gossip Girl, she found that she was an actual living breathing girl who…surprise surprise, was **THE** It Girl of Constance Billiard, and all of New York, apparently. Sakura tried to feel an inch of jealousy with how infatuated Dan was with this girl (enough to apply for St. Jude's, anyway), but she supposed she'd seen him fart in front of her one too many times.

But thanks to Gossip Girl, Sakura was quickly schooled on the fact that while she might know her periodic table and her calculus, she didn't know her Givenchy from her Galliano. Hell, she didn't even know where she bought her last pair of shoes. And she was going to die alone and an outcast in Constance Billiard, all thanks to her dearest, oldest friend.

"I hate you." she said aloud. Dan looked at her with a confused look.

"What?"

"I'm ready!" Jenny sang cheerfully as she finally swept out of her bedroom after what seemed to be a trillion years.

"Finally." Sakura groused, already decided that the next years would be absolute hell for her. She slapped Dan on the back of his head for good measure.

"HEY!"

—-

It was 30 minutes past nine, but Sakura still hadn't moved a step nearer her new school.

Dan had loitered around for ten minutes while Jenny had happily whizzed past them, grateful for an excuse not to be near two of the biggest losers who'd ever loser'd. Dan had tried to sweet-talk her, bully her, reverse-psychologize her, until finally he gave up and went on ahead of her.

Traitor.

Eventually, Sakura would have to walk up those steps. Eventually, the girls would start to realize that she didn't wear anything recognizable, making her unrecognizable. Eventually, she'd have to find that little corner where they'd leave hear alone.

Eventually.

But for now she still had her sidewalk.

She stared up the majestic brown building. Intimidated. That was something she didn't feel often. She and Dan had always been well-liked in middle school, thick as thieves, united in their love of books and nerdiness. Then the hormones came and Serena fucking van der Woodsen, what kind of fucking name is that even…

"Ehem."

…she might have to ask her mom to take out another mortgage so she can afford to buy a million Balenciagas or whatever those things were called…

"_Ehem." _

"What?" Sakura wheeled to face her phlegmy intruder to her angry thoughts. A tall, spiky-haired senior stood in front of her, his St. Jude's uniform artfully disheveled, face half-covered with those mask things people wore when they were sick. She took a step back, just in case.

He fixed her with a cool stare with those gray eyes. "So you gonna go in, or what?"

She rolled her eyes, knew that he was a jerk almost immediately. "None of your business?"

He chuckled lazily. "Why? Afraid they'd catch you in last year's Tory Burch flats?"

"I don't even know what that means, but if you don't step away from me right now I'm gonna pepper spray you and tell them you flashed me."

He shrugged. "Suit yourself." He began to walk up the stairs before he paused and turned back to look at her. "Must say, it wouldn't do too well on your record to say that you pepper-sprayed a St. Jude's teacher now, would you?"

"I—WHAT?!" Sakura reddened, but before she could even apologize, he'd already walked away in a long-legged gait.

She stared at his back for two seconds before she mustered the courage to run after him.


	4. Insomnia

KakaSaku drabble prompt: "Insomnia"

God this turned out to be long. I feel derpy about this (and for that I apologize), but… Thanks for the prompt!

—-

For several nights Sakura endured the night noises.

First, he'd shift out of bed from next to her and pad slowly to the kitchen. Next, she'd hear cabinets open, the rustling of a tea packet, the clinking of a spoon against a mug, the scrape of the seat across the floor. He did all of these in perfect darkness, completely unencumbered by it. She wondered how it was possible that he'd already memorized the outlines of their apartment even if they'd barely begun living there together for a month.

She'd endured the night noises for the most part. This was probably part of his nesting period, she rationalized. They were getting to know each other in a totally different way, and this was one thing she was learning about him. To be honest, she didn't know that there was still much to learn about Kakashi's habits. Her extended missions with him in the past informed her of the configurations of his sleeping form, how he was actually an early riser, that he liked taking warm baths if they were available.

Living with him proved her otherwise. She found out that even in close quarters, Kakashi liked his solitude (sometimes not talking to her for extended periods of time), that he didn't like listening to music, and that he was quite fastidious with his ninken's hygiene.

And there was this. His insomnia, drinking tea in the pitch black darkness.

Sakura learned long ago that trying to barge into Kakashi's privacy would only succeed in him shutting the door even more tightly against intruders. So she kept quiet and waited. But not tonight.

Her bed was cold and she didn't want to be alone.

After debating furiously with herself (Inner Sakura, she missed her), Sakura finally got up and traced her husband's steps into the kitchen. She hesitated, but finally switched on the lights.

He sat there at the kitchen table, perfectly unperturbed by her appearance. His mask was pulled down as he took another slow sip of tea. Her husband, Sakura mused, feeling the word around her mind. Her husband, the mystery.

"Still not used to sleeping next to me?" she teased as she sat next to him.

He merely raised an eyebrow at her. It was amazing how much the loss of the mask made him even more expressive. She wasn't used to it. Clearly now he thought it was a very silly notion indeed.

Ah, she can roll with it. She _was_ his wife, after all.

"Probably my snoring…" she went on.

"Sakura…" he began warningly.

"Or my hogging the covers…" she was practically singing now.

"Stop it…"

"Or my morning breath…"

He put his mug down so forcefully at this last statement that it startled her. "That's not it at all." He looked hard into the table's surface, she was afraid he'd drill a hole into it.

Gently, she reached out to take his hand. It was warm, calloused and hers. "Then what is it, dear?"

He sighed. His face looked so sad. "That maybe you made a mistake…choosing me." He gestured with his other hand with a hopeless kind of air.

Truthfully, insecurity wasn't a trait that Sakura had associated with her husband. He had started out in her life as someone lofty and all-knowing, and to see that he had this little seed of doubt made her heart ache.

She drew nearer and made herself comfortable on his lap. One mournful gray eye met hers, and she had to chuckle. "So silly," she murmured as she leaned in to kiss his brow. Kakashi was never one for words, so she brushed her lips over his eyebrows, his lips, ghosted his cheek.

"Sakura…" he shuddered out her name in an unsteady breath. "Stop distracting me."

She withdrew back quickly, jumping back like a cat. "Tell you what." she said, as she drew up and threw aside her nightgown. "I'll let you decide which mistake you'd rather have tonight, because right now I only have a quota for one. Your choice." she winked saucily at him and sashayed away.

"Wicked woman."

Really, it was no surprise to either one that Kakashi didn't suffer from insomnia afterwards (and which mistake he chose….repeatedly).


	5. Haruno Holiday Times

**Haruno Holiday Times**

_Prompt: _Sakura brings her boyfriend/fiance/boy toy home to introduce and a typical family holiday ensues. Kakashi preferred, but a Sasuke is fine too. Feigned happiness, judgmental offhanded comments, passive aggressive dinner conversation, leading to drunken yelling about life choices and so on. General embarrassment and holiday hell with one's family. And pie.

* * *

She really should've thought about Christmas before she said yes. Happiness did weird things to your brain. It totally made you forget about the Shinobi rules, took your mind off planning in advance. They'd only been openly dating for a few months when Kakashi quietly visited her late one night and asked her to marry him.

She said yes, of course, but really, she should've thought about Christmas.

It brought her a little comfort that Kakashi seemed as nervous as she was. First, he showed up on time, a Christmas miracle if she'd ever seen one. Second, he kept on smoothing down his hopelessly unruly hair. Third, he didn't let go of her hand the whole time from Sakura's apartment to her parents' house.

They now stood in front of that familiar door, and Sakura had to fight the urge to throw away her pie and run as fast as her feet could take her. Kakashi looked impassive, but he was probably thinking the same thing. Sakura had to laugh. Two experienced jounins, and frightened of her parents. They might as well both be teenagers again.

"You'll be fine," Sakura murmured for the nth time as she stood on tiptoes to kiss Kakashi through his mask.

Unfortunately, her mother chose the exact moment to open the door.

"Oh! Sakura…! You're here!" Her mother greeted a little over-enthusiastically, her face frozen into a terrified smile. Sakura slowly lowered herself back on the ground and shot back her own terrified smile.

"Mom! Merry Christmas!" Sakura said, a little too loudly, as if she could shout over the awkwardness of the situation. She launched herself at her mother, still careful with the pie in one hand.

Her mother patted her reassuringly. She nodded at Kakashi. "Welcome, Kakashi-sensei…oh!"

Sakura stiffened. Cripes.

"Just call me Kakashi, Mebuki-san. Merry Christmas!" Kakashi said easily. Sakura extricated herself from the hug and shot her mother and her fiancé an uncertain look. The two were still smiling hard at each other, with absolutely nothing more to say.

"Well, let's all go in, shall we?" God, her cheeks were starting to hurt with all this smiling. She grabbed Kakashi's hand and ushered him inside.

The house was decorated in its usual holiday ornaments, and for a second Sakura had a strange feeling of being transported back in time. Even her old Christmas stockings, hand-decorated by herself, hung on the Christmas tree. The smell of her childhood—a curious mix of cinnamon and green—was the same. This wasn't going to be good, she decided, if she wanted to convince her parents that she wasn't a kid anymore.

"Sakura-chan!" Her father came out of nowhere, and by the smell on his breath she could tell he'd already started with the brandy. A vague conversation with her mother a few weeks ago had hinted how unhappy her father was with her decision to marry her former teacher. Her dad was probably taking on too much liquid courage, and now she was truly scared.

"Come! Sit!" Her father was now practically pulling her away from Kakashi, and made her sit on the right-hand side of the head of the table. He then pointedly pulled out another seat for Kakashi on the other end, as far as he can from her. If the Copy Nin was offended, he didn't show it.

Sakura started praying as soon as they all sat down. After the initial pleasantries ("How was your trip?" "You mean the 20 minute walk? Fine! Just fine!") her mother asked to see her ring.

"Oh, it's lovely." Her mother commented. "It's good that you chose such a small stone and such a simple design! Otherwise, it will catch too much attention, and you don't want that on your ninja missions, right?"

"I love it. It's just my taste!" Sakura said defiantly, and smiled across the table at Kakashi.

"How are your teammates, Sakura-chan?" Her father asked. "Naruto, Sasuke and Sai? All going well?"

"Yes! We just saw them the other day, didn't we Kakashi…?" Sakura said, in a vain effort to bring her fiancé into the conversation.

"Such NICE boys," her mother smiled. "And all so handsome, too! Especially Sasuke. Didn't you like him for the longest time, Sakura?"

"Yes, very handsome!" Her father agreed before Sakura could respond. "No need to hide behind the mask, as they probably don't have anything to hide, right, Kakashi?" He threw their guest an exaggerated wink.

"Quite right!" Kakashi said amiably.

"DAD!" Sakura said.

"I was just kidding! See? Kakashi knew I was kidding!"

Sakura was in hell. She had died and gone to hell, she just knew it. Or she was in a genjutsu who hated her guts.

"So, are they dating anyone?" Mebuki said calmly, as if nothing had happened.

"Naruto's still going out with Hinata. The other two are idiots, so they aren't dating anyone yet." Sakura hated answering this question. She just knew her mom would look up, raise her eyebrows, say, "Oh!" and then snidely slide her eyes towards Kakashi in an unspoken judgment call on her life choices.

"I haven't liked Sasuke since I was twelve." Sakura said, as if she needed to clarify.

"Of course, dear. Pass the corn, please."

Sakura complied. Kakashi was still eating quietly, his head lowered, movements too quick for anyone to see his face. Her heart hurt for him.

"So, Kakashi, I heard that you're due to take on another genin team next year." Her heart lightened to hear that her father was finally talking to her fiancé.

"That's right." Kakashi smiled.

"Well, let's just you two are married before then! Don't want any other girls sniffing around, don't we, Sakura-chan?! HAHAHAHAHA!" Her father slapped the table, so convinced of his own hilarity.

Kakashi set down his utensils. He was gripping them so tightly that he almost bent them in half. But his smile was still on. "Thank you for the lovely dinner." He nodded at her parents. "But I think it's time for me to go."

"Kakashi…!" Sakura began to protest, but her parents' silence was deafening. She watched her fiancé make his way out of their front door.

Sakura slammed her fists down on the table once he was out of view. "What the hell was that about?!"

Her parents resumed eating as if they didn't hear anything.

"Mom…Dad…" She hated this, but now the tears sprang into her eyes. That made her parents look up.

"Sakura…"

"How can you do that to him!" She yelled, the tears flowing more steadily now. "I love him! I love him with all my heart! He's been there for me when no one else has! How can you do this to me! To us!"

"How about us, Sakura!" Her father slammed his own fist on the table. "How can you humiliate us this way! All our neighbors are talking about it! Your former sensei! Of all people!"

"He hasn't been my teacher for years!" Sakura protested.

"Sakura…" Her mother said softly. "We're just concerned. It was a shock for your father and I. You have to understand. We didn't know what to think when you first told us. How long has this been going on? Since you were a child? Since you were a teenager? You haven't been upfront with us, and now you're angry that we don't understand?"

Sakura shook her head and sniffed. "I-it wasn't anything weird or perverted like that, Mom," she said miserably. "It just…happened. Last year, we were assigned on a mission together for the first time since I became a jounin, and then our feelings changed."

Her parents were quiet again, and it emboldened her to continue. "I've always loved him as a mentor and a brother-in-arms, but I saw how lonely he was. I was, too. You don't know the loneliness in being shinobi…but we found each other. He is a good man. More than that, he is the best man for me." She wiped her eyes and looked at them with a determined look. "I love you guys, but I'm not going to give him up for anything."

Her father didn't want to look at her, so Sakura put a hand on his arm. "Dad…?"

He finally dragged his eyes to her and softened when he saw her tear-stained face.

"Is he a good man?" He asked thickly.

Sakura nodded. "The best."

"….Then call him back in."

Sakura found Kakashi sitting on the doorstep, looking a bit forlorn. She bent down to meet his eye and offered him a plate of pie.

"Hi." She said.

"Hi."

"Hope you don't mind me sitting out here." He said. "I wanted to be close to you in some way. It IS Christmas, after all."

"I know." A pause. "I'm sorry for that…whatever that was…earlier."

"It's alright. I don't blame them. I was more scared of you, anyway." Sakura laughed at that, and sat next to him. A few years ago, this scenario would've seemed weird. But it wasn't. It wasn't weird at all.

"But that thing you said to them…" He grinned at the sky. "That was probably the best Christmas gift I've ever had."

She smiled and leaned into him. She knew her parents would call them both back in, but she wanted this moment of respite.

"I love you, Kakashi." She said.

He turned to her and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "I love you too, Sakura."

"Merry Christmas."

He answered her with a kiss.


	6. Blush

_Prompt: tease and blush? preferably kakashi tease sakura, just want to see her lovely pink blush reaction._

* * *

It started as a joke.

Their unexpected extended mission at Amegakure had apparently sent tongues wagging upon their arrival at Konoha. Kakashi sensed it almost immediately as soon as they crossed the archway that signaled home.

It didn't help that Genma was the first person who greeted them. The dark-haired jounin smirked at them as he raised a hand in greeting. "Yo! Enjoyed your honeymoon?" he asked, swizzle stick in mouth dangling restlessly.

"WHAT?!" Sakura demanded, always the first to react. But Genma didn't even bother replying, his smirk simply widening as he sauntered away.

"What the heck was that about…?" the kunoichi muttered. Kakashi simply shrugged, eager to get home and have some real rest. Sakura seemed to have the same thoughts as they parted with an amiable farewell, like it was nothing, like they didn't just spend the last 6 months together in a foreign land.

—

It started as a suggestion.

Asuma ran into him as he stared blankly at dog food section of the grocery store. Konoha's sudden increase in fortunes seemed to bode well for entrepreneurs everywhere. Suddenly, he had 50 more choices of dog food brand to choose for his ninken. He was just mulling on the difference of beef and lamb when his colleague walked up to him, a package of diapers in one hand.

"Ah, Kakashi. You're back." Asuma greeted amiably. Kakashi merely nodded, hands in his pockets, eye still on the dog food.

Asuma didn't let this hinder him. "We thought you and Sakura had eloped. Weren't you two only supposed to stay there for three weeks?"

That got Kakashi's attention. He blinked. "Missions change all the time. You know that, Asuma."

Asuma's unlit cigarette dangled annoyingly from the man's lips. It reminded Kakashi of Genma's comment to them a few days earlier. "Alright. If you insist."

"Anything you want to share with me, Asuma?" Kakashi asked, careful not to show any sort of concern for the thoughts that were starting to cloud in his head.

It didn't seem to be effective. Asuma laughed uproariously as he slapped the copy nin's back soundly. "Nothing to worry about, my friend. I was just teasing you. Everyone knows Sakura has a crush on you…."

Wait.

"What?" Kakashi scratched his head. "That's not true."

Asuma merely shook his head. "Discretion is the name of the game, my friend. Learn from me." He winked. "And I thought nothing ever escaped your notice."

"Nothing escaped my notice. You know that's not true, Asuma."

"Isn't it?" Asuma pouted. "Why don't you try it out? Women that age are very easily affected when the man they like are around them. If nothing happens, then I'll personally help you quash that rumor."

"But I don't need any help. It's just not…"

But Asuma had already walked away.

—

It started out as a harebrained scheme that came from Genma's careless remark and Asuma's totally unwanted insinuation.

Sakura was on her guard immediately the moment Kakashi pulled out the seat for her.

"What are you doing?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.

"What, I can't pull out chairs for ladies anymore?"

"Since when was I a lady for you? You wouldn't even buy me tampons when I really needed it…and I was bed-ridden after I took ten kunai for you!"

"This is me making up for it," he countered smoothly as he seated himself across her.

She was still giving him a strange look. As she should. This shabu shabu place was a little too nice compared to what they were used to.

Right. So.

The mission was to make her blush. Somehow, it made sense. Nothing Kakashi said ever fazed Sakura. If what Asuma said was true, then, surely, he could get a reaction out of her somehow, right? Then he'd stomp out this little crush for good. Not that Sakura even showed him the faintest bit of affection for him while they were in Amegakure together. Still, it was a rumor worth quashing.

"You look cute today, Sakura."

"Oh?" She rubbed her forehead absentmindedly as she looked over the menu. "I think I need a haircut, to be honest."

"You always look perfect to me."

She made that face again. That Kakashi Are You High? face. "Are you alright, Kakashi? Feeling feverish? Do I owe you money or something?"

"What, I can't call anyone cute anymore?"

"You never call anyone cute." Sakura's well-honed analytical gears were on a turn now. "Something's up. Spit it out."

"Well, I…"

"SPIT IT OUT!"

Everyone in the restaurant suddenly went silent and stared at them. Kakashi had to meekly raise his palms up and apologize. He really hated it when Sakura cornered him.

"Well, there's this rumor going around…" he began meekly.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I heard about that. Naruto, Sai and Yamato practically interrogated me as soon as I got home from the mission. Are you stupid or something? It shouldn't bother you! Or does it?" Green eyes met his in suspicion. "It bothers you, doesn't it?"

"A little," he admitted. "You're my teammate, Sakura."

She sighed an all-suffering sigh. "Right." She bolted up and grabbed him by the hand. Not knowing what else to do, he let her pull him into the back of the restaurant until they retreated into an alleyway. Satisfied that there was no one else around, Sakura whirled on him, hands on hips.

"Ok. Now, kiss me."

Now it was Kakashi's turned to be shocked. "W-WHAT?"

She pointed a finger to her lips. "Kiss me. Then we'll know for sure."

"Now who's crazy?"

"Kakashi, believe me when I say that all I want to do now is prove you and everyone wrong. I don't like you. And I'll prove it right now."

"But I don't think this method is—" but Kakashi wasn't able to say any more as the pink-haired girl suddenly pushed herself into him, her lips finding him. They were wonderfully soft and pliant, and surprisingly knew what they wanted. He found himself kissing her back, his hands tangling in her hair.

It seemed like an eternity before Sakura pulled back. All annoyance was gone from her face now, her cheeks flushed and her breathing hard. "Whoa…" she whispered, eyes never leaving his.

It was confirmed.

Sakura got it hard for him.

But then again, so did he.


	7. Smitten by You

I was going through my messages and saw I didn't get to this prompt. I'm so sorry, **silvericy**. I hope you like it.

NOTE: This is a 12-year-old Sakura and Kakashi friendship fic. I'm just drawing on my own experience in having a crush on a teacher :p

—

Sakura will never admit to it, but Sasuke wasn't her only crush when she was 12.

It happens, she rationalized to herself. Emotionally unavailable men were one of the things that insecure young girls like herself tended to gravitate towards to…and you couldn't get any more emotionally unavailable than her jounin-sensei 14 years her senior.

She hid it better than her crush on Sasuke, too. She'd find the most cunning ways to find herself walking with Kakashi after a long day's training. She did this when she was particularly annoyed with Sasuke and Naruto—the two would always find some way to bicker and she usually felt left out, if not totally frustrated with her attempts to act as referee. Kakashi seemed to have it all figured out, though, as he was happy enough to let the two boys argue unchecked.

She liked how uncomplicated Kakashi seemed to be. She also liked his face—the little she saw of it, anyway. She'd always been gleeful to join in with Naruto and Sasuke in their attempts to unmask that face. It was a challenge that united all three every now and then. She liked the color of his hair—on him it didn't make him look older at all, only that it glinted in a marvelous shade of silver. She was also starting to appreciate his grace in fighting, although he was perpetually slouched whenever he wasn't. She liked his voice, and she liked how tall he was. She was only twelve, but it didn't mean she couldn't appreciate those things, couldn't she?

She must have been staring at him for a while to draw attention. "Sakura," Kakashi began, nose still buried in his book. "For the last time, I'm not going to tell you what Icha Icha is all about," he reprimanded gently.

Sakura colored lightly. "I-it's not that!"_ Stupid sensei_, Inner Sakura raged. _If he didn't want people asking about it, he shouldn't read it in public!_ But she calmed Inner Sakura down, reminding her that they had a crush on him, so be quiet, okay? Sakura suddenly sensed he was going to raise more questions so she beat him to the punch:

"D-do you have any girlfriends, sensei?"

"Hn?" She expected him to be embarrassed, or surprised, or flustered by her question, but he did none of these things. She might as well have asked him what he had for breakfast. He merely shrugged and turned a page. "If you haven't noticed, I don't exactly have time for girlfriends, Sakura. You twerps are work enough."

"Never interested in anyone…?" Sakura pressed tentatively.

Another page was turned. "Nope," Kakashi replied.

"D-do you have a type?"

"Sakura, what's with the questions?"

"Well!" She glanced at Sasuke's back and had a brainwave. "Well, you know, I would imagine that you were a lot like Sasuke when you were younger…I just thought that maybe you'd have the same type of woman…?" It sounded weak in her ears, and Kakashi didn't seem quite convinced.

"I'm not quite sure getting a girlfriend is in Sasuke's plans, and we might not have the same preferences…" Kakashi began, but he caught Sakura's pleading look and sighed in defeat. "Fine. Well, first, she has to be patient. Really patient."

"Really?" She was surprised that Kakashi didn't start with a list of physical attributes. She expected him to say,_ someone tall_, or, _someone with a great rack_. She was expecting it, given how much the man read porn.

"Yeah. Being a ninja's girlfriend isn't easy, you know? She has to understand the risks the come with the job. So she definitely has to be patient. But she also has to know how to speak her mind, because being with a martyr is boring."

"But don't guys hate girls who talk back?"

"Guys who don't like a girl with a brain and a spine maybe," Kakashi shrugged lazily. "It's less work in the long run…you know what she wants and you're not guessing all the time."

"Patient but speaks her mind, got it." Sakura made a show of ticking off an imaginary list. "Anything else?"

"Hmmm. She's got to be her own person, and doesn't need a guy to define who she is."

That made Sakura take pause for a bit. "What do you mean, sensei?"

"Well, take a look at you, for example," Kakashi flicked off a long strand of hair from her head. "You grew this out for Sasuke, didn't you? Because you heard he likes girls with long hair."

This was cue for Sakura to flush a deep red. "W-who told you that?"

"What, like it was a secret? Tell me Sakura, does Sasuke notice you more now that your hair is all long and shiny?"

"No." How humiliating to admit it!

"That's what I mean. A lot of women think that changing themselves to suit a man better would mean they would get loved more, but it hardly ever works that way. Men are stupid animals, they don't know what they want…haha, I'm just kidding. But it just doesn't work. Period."

"Hmmm." Sakura murmured thoughtfully, filing it away for deeper thought later. "I guess that makes sense. I didn't know you thought so deeply about these things, sensei."

"I didn't," Kakashi was once again absorbed in his book. "I picked it up from my, uh, readings."

"I see," she made a playful grab at his book, which Kakashi was quick to evade.

"Hey, you're not old enough to read this!" Kakashi joked laughingly.

"Well I won't stay twelve forever!" Sakura stuck out her tongue.

He made a face. "Cute," he smushed one palm over her head. "Just don't stress about what guys like, okay? Just do your own thing, you'll be alright." Sakura felt her ears burn at the touch of his hand. "Focus on becoming a great ninja like Tsunade or Kurenai, and think about the boys later, hmm?"

"Okay!" She had a feeling that her crush would even be worse after their talk. She was now so self-conscious she couldn't stand being around him a second more. "Well, I'll go ahead, sensei! See you at the finish line!"

Kakashi watched her retreating back and sighed. "What a weird girl….any guy who ends up with her is going to need a lot of patience, himself." Idly, he wondered who that guy would be. With another shrug, he simply went back to reading his book and on his way, trailing after his bothersome students.


	8. Drunk

_Prompt: drunk sakura complaining about her love life to kakashi?_

* * *

"MEN!" Sakura bellowed, slamming her tenth beer soundly on the table, so strongly that Kakashi was afraid that she'd smash it.

"Yes?" the jounin murmured, amused.

"As I was saying," Sakura slurred slightly, her green eyes unfocused, head wobbling slightly. "Men. Men are stupid. We should throw rocks at them."

"I'm afraid that'd be against my self-interest, Sakura."

"Pfft!" Sakura waved the sentiment away like a troublesome fly. "Always looking out for yourself! Where WERE you when I was nurturing an ill-advised crush on Shasuke? NOWHERE! You're useless, you know that?!"

"Sakura, I was a lot of things, including a bad teacher, but it's unfair for you to expect me to meddle even in **THAT**!"

"Mmm." Sakura propped her chin up on one hand, gazing dreamily in the middle distance. "He's not cute with that rope thing though, Sasuke. He should get rid of it. Makes him look like he has love handles."

"He should get rid of a lot of things. Bad attitude included," Kakashi murmured into his drink.

"WELL NO MORE!" Sakura yelled abruptly, thumping her beer bottle again. "I am over him. Definitely, positively, affirmatively, over him. It's just too much…eurgh…too much going on there, you know? And I refuse to be that girl who wants to change someone."

"That's right." Kakashi agreed.

"There are plenty of fish in the sea!"

"That's what they say!"

"No longer will shy away or fall for bad guys! Starting now!" And without further ado, she leaned over and planted a kiss right on his mouth.

Well then.

"Took you long enough," Kakashi teased when she finally pulled back.

"Honestly? I'm not even really drunk," Sakura admitted, giggling.


	9. Different Eyes

_Prompt: write a short kakasaku fic involving a gender-bent cast 8D_

* * *

Eeeeeenteresting. I'll give it a shot! Wrote this in one go, so I didn't get to include other genderbent cast members, sorry.

* * *

She didn't know when she started noticing him.

Kashi Hatake prided herself in seeing everything but pretending to notice nothing. This particular skill set served her well through the years—throughout her stint in ANBU, her early years as a jounin, and later on, when she became mentor to the most upstart and obnoxious genin team in Konoha. This feigned ignorance served her well for those who didn't know her better, but for those who did, only served to make her just a tiny little bit more frustrating to deal with.

But for her to be totally caught off-guard? Not a familiar sensation.

Saku Haruno had always been obnoxious, headstrong boy in his youth. He and Naruko had always been up to no good with their antics, and she always ended up being called in the Hokage's office due to their shenanigans in one way or another. It was annoying when it lasted, but she always felt nostalgic when she looked back on it. She remembered Naruko's pigtails, that whiskered cheeky grin.

After the war, though, everything changed. Hell, even SHE changed. She had been pushed to her limit, shoved against the wall. Her carefully-concealed rage and hate and guilt were called into action to defend the world she knew and loved. She finally proved that she was a person to be feared, and she found that she couldn't go back, not really, to the person she used to be.

But Saku didn't look at her differently. He personally oversaw her recovery—whether it was because she used to be his former jounin-sensei or simple sentimentality, she didn't know. But Saku was there. It wasn't very much at first: few words of concern, some exchange about the war that just ended, remembering their dead comrades. There was no need for pretension with Saku—she would always be Kashi to him, no more, no less.

And Saku had changed as well. Gone was the brash boy she'd known, changed to a man of quiet words and a quiet will. Then one day he gently put a calloused hand on her shoulder, glowing with green chakra. Then Kashi realized that he'd slipped past her defenses, saw him with different eyes. She saw his broad chest, his wide-set shoulders, the hard set of his jaw, the ragged cut of his rosy hair.

Then Saku met her gaze and she knew, she just knew (his eyes lingered on her breasts, the curve of her lips, her eyelashes, her cheeks), he'd started looking at her differently, too.


	10. Did I Say That Out Loud?

_PROMPT: Kakashi trying to confess his feeeeeelings and being totally, totally awkward about it. So uncool. Seriously_.

* * *

You didn't have to be a shinobi to know that feelings were…_inconvenient_.

And the expression of said feelings even more so.

He should've said something the last time they went out. But she looked so beautiful, and he only had enough wits about him to keep a conversation going. He wasn't sure how to be like this, a wooer, a person who tried to keep someone else interested in him. He never really cared before whether people liked him or not. With her, though…

It was like he was gripped in a constant state of anxiety whenever he was around her. Did he smell ok? Did that thing he just say sound too dismissive? He had to constantly remind himself that this was _Sakura_, his once-student who he once treated abhorrently. Hmm. Maybe this was his karma, falling in love with her, and now he had to make up for it.

There it was again: In love.

Part of the reason he wanted to just say it out loud is just to get those damned butterflies out of his stomach. He liked his stomach calm and serene, thank you very much.

Now he, Kakashi Hatake, legendary copy ninja, stared across Konoha Hospital's cafeteria feeling like a goddamned teenager. He was supposed to meet Sakura for lunch today; and although the circumstances weren't exactly romantic, he was resolved to let her know his feelings as soon as possible. If only to get the goddamned butterflies out.

He strode towards her, avoiding frazzled hospital staff and distracted nurses. Sakura herself sat at a table in the middle of the cafeteria, oblivious to the controlled chaos around her. She was reading a rather large and heavy medical textbook, a pen dangling absently from her lips. He realized he wanted to kiss her.

"Yo."

Sakura looked up, her eyes brightening. "Kakashi! You're—"

Before she could continue, a nurse crashed into Kakashi, spilling drink all over his uniform. The dark liquid seeped all over his sweater. Great, just great.

He didn't even get an apology. The nurse was looking at Sakura. "Senpai, we need your help! Schoolchildren at the academy got food poisoning and they need you at the ER right now!"

"Alright." Sakura was on her feet in a matter of seconds. She gave him a hurried nod. "I'll talk to you later, alright?" she said as she rushed after the unapologetic nurse, leaving him with a sopping-wet sweater and his heart in his hands.

—

He tried to go the romantic route next.

The ninken were assigned a spot en route from the hospital to Sakura's apartment. They were to give her a single rose until she got home, where of course he would be waiting. To be honest, he felt embarrassed about it, but Pakkun and the others were quite nice when he approached them with the task. They'd probably want treats after this.

Kakashi stood at her doorstep. It typically took ten minutes from the hospital to her apartment, but it was already twenty and Sakura wasn't there. It wasn't like Konoha's streets were dangerous, and Sakura could very well take care of herself, but Kakashi was starting to get worried when the woman herself appeared out of the blue in a poof of smoke.

"Kakashi! Your ninken got into a fight with Hana-san's dogs!" Sakura yelled frantically as she grabbed his hand. They transported to the scene of the crime, the roses nowhere to be found, his ninken scratched up, and his great plan in pieces. He gave all of them a sound scolding, as much as those sorrowful dog eyes allowed him to, anyway. Sakura helped him get all of them home, but at that point he was just too disappointed to even do more than a hug and a wave goodbye.

—

He tried the sex appeal route by showing up shirtless at training one day, but she simply laughed at him.

He tried to confess by taking her to the movies. But before he could even sneakily put his arm around her, she had fallen asleep (she really worked too hard these days).

He tried the secret admirer route but it wasn't exactly effective when Sakura had at least ten secret admirers. His puny box of chocolates were easily lost in the sea of others.

He seriously considered serenading her, but his last attempt at karaoke was a day of infamy among his peers.

Maybe a bento box? Oh wait, he was absolutely useless at making bentos.

The stress was getting to him. He was getting cranky, and even Naruto was on the receiving end of one of his rare sermons when the boy tried to get a free lunch out of him ("Ramen is so unhealthy for you! Eat something else!") People were wont to give him a wide berth when he passed by, and Sakura was bound to notice. Eventually.

"What is wrong with you? People act like it's the second coming of the Akatsuki when you're around." Sakura said as she placed her lunch tray next to him at the hospital cafeteria. Kakashi didn't bother to respond, chewing his food glumly.

"Are you sick?" she persisted, laying one glowing hand against his forehead. "You feel warm."

"I'm fine." Kakashi muttered, blushing under his mask. Damn this woman. Seriously.

"Convincing. Are they going to make you Hokage again? Is that why you're in a mood?" she was teasing him again.

_No, I love you and I've been trying to tell you all week and it's all been going wrong,_ he thought.

It was Sakura's face and shocked silence that clued Kakashi in that he actually said it aloud.

"Did I say that out loud?" he asked stupidly.

She nodded, still shocked, her face red all over.

"Oh."

"…so….you love me?" He was shaking, but didn't want to show it. He stared at his lunch tray, and tried to ignore the roaring in his ears.

"Well. Don't let it get to your head." he said lamely.

"No." Impossibly, she took his hand and smiled. "It went straight to my heart."


	11. Fortunes

**Fortunes (KakaSaku oneshot, G)**

**Written for KakaSaku Week, Day 7: Future. **

I really enjoyed writing most of the prompts! Thanks everyone for reading, and thanks also to people who contributed, it's been really fun! ^_^

—

"Come on, Sakura!"

Ino impatiently huffed a lock of blonde hair out of her face as she waited her friend to follow her. Sakura, still chewing on her last piece of dango nodded meekly as she trailed after her best friend, her kimono itching in places.

"Slowpoke," Ino huffed under her breath as she took Sakura's hand to pull her gently along. The two girls weaved through the colorful crowd, small butterflies in a sea of flowers.

"Ino-chan," Sakura said, sandals clacking against the pavement. "Do we really have to hurry?" She really wanted to pause and enjoy her last dango.

"Sakura-chan, we'll get you more dangos on the way back, okay? They say this fortune-teller only comes once every twenty years and I don't want to miss her!" Ino explained, hurrying her steps.

"Ehhhh…"

Finally, the crowd thinned out as they approached the edge of the the festivities. A small, bejeweled tent sat in the semi-darkness, faintly glowing. Ino made a pleased sound when a customer came out of the tent, smiling happily. She wheeled on Sakura. "You go first."

Sakura shook her head furiously. "Uh-uh! This is your idea!"

"Come on!" Ino shoved a handful of coins in her friend's hand. "Here's some extra money I made from the flowers we provided at the festival. Consider this my treat, Sakura-chan! Anyway, I heard that doing good things for others make your fortune better in these kinds of things…"

Leave it to Ino to always have an ulterior motive. Ah, well. Sakura nodded, took the coins, swallowed the last of her desert, and bravely walked in the tent.

The room was warm, and smelled of spicy, mysterious things. In the middle of the tent sat a small table and on one side, a kindly-looking old woman. She looked grandmotherly, also dressed in a beautiful kimono, her skin a dark nutty color, creased and worn. She gestured for Sakura to sit.

"You look like you don't know what you're here for," the fortune-teller observed wryly.

Sakura shook her head mulishly. "Ino-chan just brought me," she muttered under her breath.

"Ask her who your future husband will be!" Ino's head suddenly popped into the tent before disappearing again. The fortune-teller raised an eyebrow at Sakura, who simply shrugged.

"Alright then, little one. Hold out your hand, please."

Sakura did so.

A glint of interest sparked in the old woman's eye as she touched Sakura's hand. "Many things here," she murmured, wizened eyes roving over Sakura's hand. "But let's look for your husband, shall we?" she asked with a wink and a gentle smile.

"W-what do you see?" Sakura said, craning her neck a little, curious despite herself.

"Your husband will be a great man, a legend among shinobi," one knobbly finger traced the lines of Sakura's palm. "You will meet him early in your life, little one. Keep your eyes open. Oh yes, you must keep your eyes open."

"What's he like?"

The fortune-teller made a face. "Sullen," she said as she peered closer into Sakura's hand. "Serious. He comes from a great clan, but that clan is diminished. I see death in his past. Red eyes…"

At the last words, Sakura pulled her hand away, frightened, not wanting to hear anymore. The news of the Uchiha clan's massacre was too recent and still plagued her nightmares. "I-I don't want anything to do with that…" she stammered, standing up.

The old woman's face was solemn now. "Keep your eyes open, child. You will meet him very soon, not long now. And he will need your help, when the time comes."

Sakura nodded, biting her lip to keep it from trembling. She hurriedly pushed the coins into the old lady's hands and nearly tripped on her way out.

Ino's smiling face immediately turned into concern when she saw Sakura's pale expression. "Sakura-chan! Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine!"

"Did she scare you?"

Sakura shook her head. "No, nothing like that…" The old lady's words swam in her head. Sasuke Uchiha? Her future **husband**? Something inside her rebelled at the thought. Not the Uchiha clan…they were too scary…

_He will need your help, when the time comes…_

But what could someone from the Uchiha clan need from her?

She finally looked calmly to Ino. "I'm fine, Ino-chan. Just got a bit freaked out, but the fortune-teller was really nice."

"Are you sure?" Ino looked doubtful. "Well…I'll just go to have my future read and then we'll go home, okay?"

"Okay!" Sakura nodded, smiling, trying to convince Ino that she was alright. Her friend patted her back briefly before disappearing into the tent. Sakura looked at her palm, as if she could see what the old woman saw.

Uchiha Sasuke…was her future? It seemed impossible.

But he was pretty cute…Sakura found herself giggling, despite herself. Might as well start getting used to the idea of liking her future husband. Oh well. It was just palm reading. No need to get too upset about it, Sakura thought to herself as she settled down on the bench, eyes on the stars as she dreamt of a future with a solemn man.


	12. How to Tell a Guy You Love Him

_Prompt: Sakura tries to confess and Kakashi being himself gets the hint but acts clueless._

* * *

I'm starting to realize that these are actual one shots I'm doing now LOL.

Props go to this WikiHow article, which gave me the inspiration for the story (I really googled, "how to tell a guy you love him" lol)

* * *

Sakura had missed her chance, and now she was paying for it.

She missed her chance two days ago, when Kakashi unexpectedly showed up early from his A-rank mission. She was at the training grounds with Naruto and Sai, mediating between the two when Sai decided to bring up that old "dickless" insult of his. At the sight of Kakashi, she was more than eager to just let them bicker it out.

"Sakura-chan, yo!" Kakashi greeted cheerfully, as he always did.

"Welcome back!" Sakura yelled happily as she threw her arms around him, relief pumping through her veins at the sight of him. They stood there for a while, until Kakashi said.

"I'm so glad to see you." He touched her hair gently. "I love you, you know that?"

He said it so casually and so _easily_, like commenting on the weather. Sakura actually let go of him in sheer shock, and nothing in him betrayed saying anything out of the ordinary, all slouched shoulders and easy smiles. Before she could say anything back, Naruto and Sai had run up to them as well, and nothing else was said after that.

Sakura had gone straight to Ino to bitterly complain about how unfair it was that her moment to say it had gone straight to hell. As usual, her friend was patient, but practical. After her whining was done, Ino went straight to the point.

"Well, why don't you just say it to him?"

Sakura stared at the blonde, bleary-eyed and unhappy. "What do you mean, just say it to him? You know I can't do that!"

"Here." Ino shoved a small book towards her. It read, _Loving Your Shinobi Man Without Losing Your Mind_. "I got this as a gag gift last year, but it's actually not bad! It has a whole chapter on how to tell a guy you love him."

Sakura stared at Ino like she had started speaking in tongues. "Well, it's not like he's not going to say it back!" Ino groused, finally looking patience. "Just take a look at it, okay? Just do something!"

Now the book lay on her desk, as if daring her to open it. _Just do something!_ Ino's voice echoed in her mind. With a sigh, Sakura flipped over to the pertinent chapter.

**How to Tell a Man You Love Him**

**1. Wait until he feels happy and secure.**

What was that supposed to mean? Kakashi was the very image of happiness and security. Nevertheless, she decided that the best approach would be to be straightforward.

She showed up at Kakashi's doorstep the next day. "Sakura-chan, yo!" the silver-haired jounin greeted, dressed up in casual clothes for a change. For some reason this made her heart skip a bit.

"Wanna go for a walk?"

"Sure. Wait a sec, will you?" He looked behind him and whistled. "Come on guys!" In a second, Sakura was overwhelmed by…fur. Kakashi's ninken came pouring out of his apartment in an excited heap.

"Sakura-chan! Long time no see!" Bisuke panted happily.

"Wow, your timing is perfect!"

Even Pakkun looked excited. "It's been a while since we went out, boss! Any special occasion?"

"Special occasion?" Kakashi scratched his head absently._ A little too absently,_ Sakura noted. He glanced at her for a second. "No, I don't think so. Sakura just wanted a walk." She could've sworn he was smiling underneath that mask.

"Great! Wonderful!" "You're a lifesaver, Sakura!" "We've been holed up for days!" "Kakashi hasn't summoned us for anything interesting!" the ninken's excited yapping drowned out any and all overtures for romance as they hurriedly dragged her along from the object of her affections.

**2. Choose a special location**

Undeterred, Sakura went to the next step. Special location? She racked her brain. Pretty much anywhere in Konoha was a special location for her and Kakashi, so intertwined their shared history. Ichiraku? Naruto would definitely be there. Training grounds? Too crowded. Konoha's archway? Too many people.

Finally it struck her: The Academy's rooftop! Of course! It was quiet, with a romantic view of the town. It had history of her and Team 7. It was perfect. She quickly left a note for Kakashi to meet her there that night.

She dressed carefully for that evening in her favorite red cheongsam, her heart in her throat.

Kakashi surprisingly showed up on time for once, and she took it as a good sign. "Sakura-chan, yo!" He greeted with his usual cheerfulness.

"You came! On time!" she said, her voice high.

"Of course! You asked me at the perfect time, after all!"

"FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE STORIED HISTORY OF THE HIDDEN VILLAGE OF KONOHA, I, MIGHT GAI, HAS BEEN CHALLENGED BY MY ETERNAL RIVAL!" A horrible weight dropped in Sakura's stomach as a green whirlwind appeared from literally nowhere. Gai struck a pose, teeth gleaming in the moonlight.

"I thought it was a good time as any to take up Gai's challenge for me to challenge him!" Kakashi explained, still cheerful and completely oblivious to the dark cloud that suddenly came over Sakura's head.

She seriously considered beating the crap out of the two, but Kakashi and Gai's bromance long preceded her, and who was she to get in the way? After a pepper-eating contest, a bizarre twirling (!) contest, and a knitting contest, there really was no more time for Sakura to confess her feelings to Kakashi.

**3. Set a romantic mood**

"Sakura-chan, yo! What's this?" Kakashi looked at her quizzically.

"It's a bento!" Girls gave the boys they liked bento, right? It was romantic. They sat at the hospital cafeteria as she watched Kakashi manfully eat the lunch she prepared. The onigiri fell apart in his hands, the tempura soggy, the salad vinaigrette too sour. At the end of it, Kakashi was practically green.

"Thank you so much for the wonderful lunch!" he choked, eyes watering with obvious pain.

No romantic overtures were done the rest of the day.

**4. Just say it**

End of the road. Sakura was going to kill Ino for the worst idea she's ever given her. She stared at the text, confused.

_If he's the serious type, be heartfelt and expressive!_

_If he's the perpetual joker, be light-hearted and chummy!_

But Kakashi was both! Sakura felt her eyelid twitching as she set down the book with a sigh. In her mind's eye, she saw herself saying it dramatically AND funnily, like a demented one-man act. This book should be renamed _How to Love Your Shinobi Man While Definitely Losing Your Mind. _

With a groan, she fell back on her bed, eyes staring at the ceiling. Why must love be so difficult? Granted, it wasn't as dramatic and difficult as it was with Sasuke's, but getting to this point wasn't exactly easy, either. There had been some serious denial, avoidance, embarrassment and confusion along the way, enough to last her a lifetime, in fact.

She bolted out of bed and out of her apartment, determined not to sulk. She wandered aimlessly, glad that she didn't see any familiar faces in the crowd. Her mind drifted back to her dilemma. Kakashi told her he loved her…but maybe she misunderstood? Other than her pathetic attempts at confessing, she hadn't even seen him lately. Surely, that wasn't to be expected of someone who said that they loved another person?

But she loved Kakashi so much…

That's when the tears started coming, fast and unstoppable. Oh no! How embarrassing! Sakura sniffled, attempting to use her hands to stem the tide. As she did so, a white handkerchief suddenly appeared before her.

Attached to the handkerchief was a hand. Kakashi's hand.

"Sakura-chan, yo."

Suddenly angry at him, she swiped the handkerchief from his hand and brushed past by him. The brute. He'd probably been playing with her feelings to see how she'd react. Now he shows up at the worst time possible? She understood now. Vulnerability made her caustic. She heard his footsteps behind her.

"Anything I can help you with?" he said, finally catching up to her.

"How about you leave me alone!"

"Hmmm." His hand rested against his chin. "This is wasn't what I planned to happen."

This only made her angrier. "This isn't what you planned? Then what did you plan? You standing over there laughing? Because being in love with you is somehow funny!?"

They both stopped in their tracks.

GOD. She just had to go and say it, didn't she?

"I didn't…" Kakashi began.

"Just leave me alone," she muttered, already set in outpacing him.

A pair of strong arms suddenly encircled her waist, slightly lifting her from the ground. "What the…?!" She glanced behind her, to see that Kakashi was holding on, a determined look on his face. "Let me go! IDIOT!"

"No." He was petulant as a child as she wriggled in his arms. "Stay here."

"I have nothing to say to you! Let go!"

"Well, I have something to say." That got her attention, and she quieted down a bit, curious despite herself. "I love you, Sakura. I'm sorry if I've been an idiot. I was just teasing you." He finally released her, but she couldn't bring herself to face him just yet, so he walked around to face her.

He leaned down a bit. "Don't you have anything to say, hmm? Before you lose your chance again?"

_So he did care!_ Funny how words had that power to make her stop staring at the floor, stop making her so angry with him. Or maybe because he was the one saying it?

The tears had stopped, and Sakura's heart felt light as a feather. She raised her green eyes at him and smiled. "I love you too, Kakashi."

And then she punched him for all her trouble.


	13. Oh, Baby

**Oh Baby (KakaSaku oneshot, G)**

**Written for KakaSaku Day 5: Exhaustion.**

* * *

"She just doesn't want to do it!"

Haruno Sakura, war hero, Hokage's apprentice, one of Konoha's top medical nin, burst into tears. Loud, noisy tears, the ones that flowed so steadily that they fell into your mouth, salty and warm.

The tiny little bundle in her arms startled at the sound of her mother's crying, scrunched up her little face, and began to bawl too.

Meanwhile, the father stood at the doorway, dumbstruck as mother and daughter cried together.

_Hoo boy._

Kakashi quickly strode over as he gently took Mika from Sakura's arms. For some reason this made his child cry even _harder_. Sakura was still crying, less loudly now, one breast exposed that she didn't even bother covering up. He had never seen her so utterly dispirited and discouraged, and he'd seen her through plenty.

"She doesn't want to _nurse_, Kakashi!" Sakura wailed plaintively. "I don't even know what to do anymore!" The tears sprang into those green eyes again. "How can I even call myself a MOTHER when I can't even nurse my own CHILD!" Her voice raised a pitch as she threw herself on the couch, her sobs refreshed anew.

"There, there," Awkwardly, he disengaged one arm from rocking Mika to stroke his wife's hair. He sat next to her as their child wailed, as his wife wailed. He felt pretty helpless himself. If only these things could be solved with the Sharingan. If only there was a jutsu for breastfeeding. Alas, men were next to useless when it came to these things. "We've read about this, remember? It's hard, but you have to keep trying."

"I'd rather undergo training with Tsunade agaaaain…" Sakura moaned, giving full way to her self-pity, face still hidden in her arms.

"Come on, Sakura. Don't be like that. Mika needs you."

At the mention of their daughter's name, Sakura finally looked up. Lips trembling and eyes watery, she nodded. Kakashi felt a surge of love in his heart. He's never seen her braver.

Sakura held out her arms and allowed Kakashi to deposit the still-bawling baby to her. Sakura held their daughter close to her, and the silver-haired infant quietened a little as her mother brushed the tears away with a soft cloth.

"Come on Mika," Sakura urged, voice wavering. "_Please_."

And by some miracle, Mika finally latched on and began to nurse. Sakura almost began crying again in sheer relief. Sakura looked a mess, torn between sobbing and laughing, her hair askew, dark circles under her eyes, face puffy and skin spotty and pale.

Kakashi was pretty sure he'd never seen her as beautiful as this moment. Unable to hep himself, he leaned over and kissed his wife. "I knew you'd do it."

"Thanks for being around, Hatake," she murmured, hiccuping.

"Anytime."


	14. Pillow Fights

prompt: kakashi, sakura, and a pillow fight, maybe? :)

—-

After weeks of being on the road on a mission that required months of sleeping in marshes and swamps, Team 7 had finally been able to reach civilization.

Sakura almost kissed the ground with sheer joy at seeing a proper inn. She prided herself for being a big girl who can tough out uncomfortable missions and sleeping arrangements, but she had been sleeping in a sleeping bag that usually crawled with leeches and worms for the better part of the year. She could afford to be joyful at the sight of a proper bed, with a proper mattress and proper pillows, after experiencing what could've been a swampy version of hell.

She didn't even bother looking back at her teammates as she rushed to have a long hot bath. She requested for extra everything—towels, soap, pillows, shampoo. It felt so good to feel (and smell) like a girl again. Her extra requests might end up costing her a small fortune, but that was what they went out for missions for, right?

When she finally was able to sink in her bed, Sakura almost squealed with pleasure. Soft and clean. There was a god, after all. A god, and delightful, kind creatures and entrepreneurs who decided to construct inns at lonely roads.

In what seemed like only a second, she was awakened by a dreadful clanging sound.

"UP, UP, IT'S BRIGHT AND EARLY IN THE MORNING!" Kakashi bellowed as he burst into her room, beating on a pan with a wooden spoon as he was wont to do. "COME ON SAKURA-CHAN, DON'T BE SUCH A LAZY GIRL, IT'S TIME TO GET UP!"

"Leave me alone, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura complained, pointedly pressing a pillow against her face. The clanging noise suddenly stopped, which caused her to take a peek.

But no. Now Kakashi was up her face, making more noise now. "Now, Sakura-chan, don't be like that!" He was smiling that infuriating masked smile of his, and Sakura just hated him with the fire of a thousand…

_WHOMP_.

Before she realized what she had done, feathers were drifting down around her and Kakashi. His spoon hung mid-air and he looked…frankly, _surprised_ at her sudden pillow onslaught.

Served him right. The callous, insensitive, stupid…

WHOMP. She hit him again with another pillow.

"Pillow no jutsu," she deadpanned. His dumbstruck look was immediately replaced by one of determination as he reached out for another pillow and soundly hit her over the head with it.

"Don't you know that I copy jutsus like it was nothing?" he said calmly.

Oh, it was so ON.

Sakura jumped up on the bed as she grabbed the pillow he hit her with. The two chased each other around of the room, with Sakura shrieking as she avoided one, two pillows. Kakashi blocked a pillow missile with his pan, as Sakura parried a counter-pillow. The feathers fell around them like snowfall. Still laughing, Sakura missed a step, and felt her foot land on the discarded wooden spoon. She felt herself slip and fall with a small, "Oh—"

But in no time at all he was there for her, a strong arm supporting her back as he caught her just in time. They both landed with a soft thud and a flurry of feathers. They stared at each other in surprise, and she noticed that his long eyelashes had caught a feather or two. He gazed down at her for what seemed like an eternity.

"Sakura…"

Her heart was beating so fast, and it wasn't because of the pillow fight. He began to lean in closer…

"Hey, what's going on here?" Naruto's voice broke the spell. Sakura sighed.

She'd have to hit Naruto with something harder than a pillow after this.


	15. Poultice

**Poultice (KakaSaku oneshot)**

Written for KakaSaku Week, Day One: Rescue and Danger.

* * *

It was a mess.

Sakura tried to be calm. Really, she tried. But it was hard to keep holding on to whatever tenuous grip she had on reality when Kakashi was lying so deathly still.

His stillness came into sharp relief against the monstrous wound on his torso. The flesh could be so resilient, but so delicate, a thin fabric holding the secret world of muscle, blood, nerves. Meat. It seemed strange that one could be reduced to mere meat with one well-placed blow.

She snipped away the rest of his clothing with shaking hands. _Focus, Sakura, focus! _she commanded herself as she did so. _Five, four, three, two, one. _No more crying. No more tears. Tears never did anything, never brought Sasuke back, never got anyone back. There was a time for tears, but she would not have them now. Not when she was in danger of losing him forever,

There was a reason why doctors weren't allowed to operate on the people they loved. They lingered, they feared, they doubted.

She gritted her teeth against it as she tried to focus on the task at hand. Kakashi was bleeding profusely now, his eyelids fluttering ever-so-slightly as he breathed with difficulty. She had pulled down his mask at one point, hating that this would be the first time she would be seeing his face.

The blood loss didn't quite match up to the wounds that he had received, she thought as she surveyed the damage. She closed her eyes and let let her chakra flow through her hands, serving as her eyes, as she surveyed the damage from within. Kakashi, as if sensing her, put up no resistance, save for the foreign chakra that belonged to the sharingan, which considered her warily as she passed through.

As she expected, the internal damage wasn't bad. But a ripple of cold energy caught her attention as her consciousness grazed something sharp and foreign. It was a senbon, tiny and buried deep in Kakashi's heart, pumping poison directly into his system. The senbon was dissolving though as it expended the last of the poison into his system.

Sakura gasped as she withdrew. She looked around, praying that Tsunade-sama, Shizune, ANYONE could come and help. But her prayers were fruitless and she was running out of time.

She screwed her eyes shut again as she grasped Kakashi's wrist in one hand. She let the chakra flow, stronger this time as she willed his blood flow to slow down, to prevent the poison from spreading through his body. She filtered it, ran her fingers through his blood with her mind's eye, touching, feeling. The poison was thick and heavy, sticky and foul. It was a complicated kind of compound. Out in the field, with her limited resources, she only had one risk to take.

She took it.

When Kakashi finally opened his eyes, it was a blessed sight.

He knelt over her, confusion in his eyes. He'd be alright, she thought, relieved. She was glad she took the risk. Then something like anguish crossed the usually-serene face.

_Sakura_, his lips mouthed._ Sakura, what did you do!?_

Her body was gripped in a series of convulsions. The poison was doing its work now. It wouldn't take long. All she had to do was reach out and whisper…she could still do that, couldn't she?

"K-kakashi…I-I'm sorry…."

_I love_

_I love…_

_Love…._

Not enough time. She felt herself go cold.

Gone.


	16. The Proposal

can I request a kakasaku where kakashi proposes?

Since you didn't specify an AU, I'll just wing it if that's ok with you Anon-san.

—-

Of all the times Kakashi would be late, this was one of the few times Sakura was pretty sure she'd never forgive him for.

She sat in her pretty but demure (_demure_ being the catchphrase for the evening) green dress as she sat across Hatake Sakumo, who was also coincidentally the DEAN of one of the top law schools in the country. After the initial polite small talk ("How was your flight? New York must be freezing this time of month!") Sakumo was now staring rather intently at the menu laid out in front of him. She couldn't blame him, being of course the student that Kakashi almost lost his teaching job for (a long and arduous story she didn't feel like revisiting at the moment).

"Kakashi is late as always," Sakura finally tittered nervously, hating the uncomfortable silence too much to bear it a second longer.

"That he is," Sakumo agreed, looking up at her from behind his glasses in such a way that reminded her of Kakashi. It was uncanny. And kind of creepy. Kakashi was practically his father's clone.

"He actually asked me to bring his mother's ring," Sakumo said with a long-suffering sigh as he procured the velvet box from his pocket. He flipped it open and a gorgeous vintage bauble sparkled from within. Sakura gulped. "He's probably going to propose to you with it too," Sakumo added with a chuckle, like it wasn't a big deal.

Suddenly the room felt a bit hot. "W-what?" Sakura rasped.

"D-Dad!" Kakashi was suddenly there, staring in horror as his father proposed in proxy for his son, like a scene from a cheesy comedy film.

Sakumo merely shrugged and chuckled. "What? It's your fault you were so late."


	17. Six Types

**six types, kakasaku (oneshot)**

IDK what I'm doing anymore lolz.

—-

**i. agape**

Sometimes when the kids are getting on his nerves, Kakashi has to remind himself that they are the future of Konoha. He has to remind himself a lot these days, when Sasuke's being extra difficult to break through, when Naruto's being extra-energetic and yet persistently incompetent, when he has to suffer from one D-rank mission to another day after day after day.

If he withholds Sakura's name from his ever-increasing list of daily complaints, it's because privately, despite her faults, Kakashi has to acknowledge that Sakura is more of a help than a burden. People have gotten into their heads that she's merely an airhead who does nothing but swoon over Sasuke, but that's more of the exception than the rule. Sakura rules over Team 7 with an iron fist, mothering the boys into submission, Kakashi himself included. She ensures that they have enough healthy food for their missions, vitamins and medicine, weather-appropriate clothes, blankets, the works. She painstakingly makes lists and reminders for Naruto to ensure he doesn't have to ever repeat wearing his underwear in missions (it's a Team 7 secret no one likes discussing). She packs sun-dried tomatoes in Sasuke's food rations, just a little extra something to make the boy smile. She keeps the the two boys in line when Kakashi's too lazy to discipline them (which is often).

Now that he thinks about it, it's Sakura who's the first to realize that he's not invincible. He knows she knows when he wakes up for the first time after his confrontation with Zabuza and Haku.

Sakura is sitting at his side, hands neatly on her lap, a tray of food next to her. "Sensei," she greets warmly as he helps him sit up. She spends the next hour patiently feeding him spoonful after spoonful of warm porridge, unknowing how he swallows shame at being looked after like a little child.

Sakura might not have the raw power of Naruto nor the genius of Sasuke, but Kakashi knows full well that Team 7 would not survive without her strength.

**ii. storge **

Years later, she doesn't really know quite how to stop mothering her Team 7.

"How's your arm?" she whisper-asks Kakashi, lying next to her on a routine reconnaissance mission. Sai and Yamato are keeping watch as they take their rest.

Kakashi makes a shrugging motion, but Sakura doesn't miss the split-second look of pain that crosses his face. She _tut tuts_ under her breath and reaches out to generate chakra to ease a little of his pain.

It's long since she's stopped feeling strange lying so close to her teammates as she slept. She's slept next to them in rain, mud, underbrush, seen them at their worst and at their sickliest, and she makes no effort of vanity now. But right now she can't help but feel a little…disconcerted at how close Kakashi's face is, how intently his one gray eye is fixed on her.

"Feeling any better?" she finally asks at length, unbearably shy now, not wanting to meet his gaze, not knowing where to look. _Silly Sakura_, she tells herself. _He's your friend!_

"Yes. Perfect, thank you," to her surprise, he puts a hand over the one she has on his arm. She expects him to say more (she's blushing so hard) but is surprised that he's already nodded off to sleep, snoring lightly.

She stares at him in amusement for a few moments before she falls asleep herself.

She leaves her hand in his. It feels warm.

**iii. ludus**

"I'm telling you Kakashi, if we sneak around them now, we'll never have time to catch up with our guy."

He catches an irritated glint in her eye when he fixes her a dubious look. "Sakura," he sighs, exasperated, "I know you think time is of the essence here, but it's not going to do anyone any good if you alert the whole camp of our presence!"

"Do you think you're talking to Naruto? Honestly, Kakashi, give me a little more credit than that!"

There's nothing more annoying than trying to work out tactics with Sakura, who's a pretty brilliant tactician herself, if she weren't so bull-headed. Before he could say anything more, she launches herself in the fray, and employs a mass genjutsu that knocks them all out before anyone has a chance to react.

Oh. He thought she was going in it to smash their face in individually. He doesn't know why he assumed that. He's forgotten that she was good at genjutsu.

She's back at his side in no time, dusting off her hands. "As you were saying, Kakashi?" she teases, She has a tendency to be flirty when she's right, starting off by dropping the _sensei_ honorific.

"Alright. You're brilliant, Sakura. Happy now?" he can't help but tease right back.

"I am super brilliant," she tosses back easily, flashing a smile.

**iv. pragma**

Sakura believes for the longest time that Kakashi doesn't care about her; not the same as he does for Sasuke and Naruto, anyway. She's tried for so long to get some sort of acknowledgment from him. But if she ever did something anything out of the ordinary, Kakashi held her briefly up as a good example for Naruto and Sasuke, but always failed to monitor her development as he did with the others.

Kakashi hasn't been her sensei for a while, yet Sakura still remembers, and it stings a bit. She's long giving up trying to impress him—really, how does one impress the legendary Copy Ninja—stops trying, full stop, since it's never really gotten her anywhere.

But it bothers her that her decision to go under the tutelage of Tsunade goes largely unnoticed and uncommented upon by Kakashi. It shouldn't bother her, but it does. A lot of what Kakashi does—or rather, what Kakashi _doesn't_ do—niggles and burrows into Sakura's self-doubt despite her efforts not to.

So it comes as a surprise when Kakashi approaches her to consult about his Sharingan. With age and use, his borrowed Uchiha eye was bound to eventually become worse, and he'd wanted to see if there was any way to prevent it or remedy it.

"Why not Tsunade-sama?" She's so surprised by his request that how the question might sound goes completely out of the window.

Now it was Kakashi's turn to be taken aback. "Tsunade-sama?" he echoes as he scratches his head. "Umm…no offense to her, Sakura, but you're more familiar with my case and.." he trails off.

Somehow, she understands what he's trying to say. _Well, you know me better than anyone._ Still surprising. Still true. Even more surprising that it is true.

She sighs in annoyance to mask her feelings. "Alright then," she says. "Let me look at it."

It's not a big deal, but she feels gratified when Kakashi leans into her hands to give her a closer look. He does it without hesitation, without even a blink, without even cracking a single joke.

(His skin feels soft under hands, but that's another thing entirely.)

He leans into her hands and for Sakura, somehow, it's everything. It's something.

It's a start.

**v. mania**

"Sakura's too popular for her own good."

Kakashi doesn't know why he says it. It's a perfectly nice day outside, he's having some cold soba, some iced tea to go with it. He doesn't have anything to do but kick his legs up. He can really just do anything, really, talk about anything. Somehow that seemed like a good topic.

Yamato stares at him mid-chew of his breaded pork. "What?"

"All these…boys. Tch. Can't be good."

Yamato resumes eating and talks with a full mouth. "Geez, Kakashi, give the girl a break. Her first love was _Sasuke_," the way Yamato says _Sasuke_ is enough to prove his point. He points the chopsticks to Kakashi. "If there's anyone who deserves to date around, it's Sakura-chan."

Kakashi rests his chin on one hand and sighs. "You don't understand. All these guys are just 'in love' with her because she took care of them during and after the war, you know? They're just enamored with the idea of her and not…_her_."

Yamato shrugs. "Being looked after by a beautiful woman is a powerful thing. I don't think it should be taken against them."

But it should be, Kakashi protests in his mind. The Sakura in their minds is a smiling, beatific angel. In reality, she is a quick-tempered girl with a lot of pack to her punch. You'd think that she'd have a reputation for that already. But no, those morons choose to believe otherwise. Well, she'd set them straight soon. The thought brings a self-satisfied smirk to his mouth.

"Why are you so against it anyway?" Yamato looks at him suspiciously. "It's not like you to pay Sakura so much attention."

He makes sure he leaves Yamato with the bill later. It seems only fair.

**vi. eros**

She forgets that it's a really bad idea to not just let him lean in, but for her to lean in herself and kiss him. In a lifetime full of bad ideas, this seems to be one of the worst.

But she's tired of the boys with the stars in their eyes, and the boys who put her on the pedestal. And she's definitely tired of that one boy who never even cared, not really. The boy who never came back for her.

His lips are a rough terrain: new and unexplored, familiar and thrilling. Even more so when he doesn't pull away, doesn't question it, merely grips her arms a little tighter as he pulls her in a little closer.

She hates that she's overthinking this. She hates that she's not thinking enough but she's tired of thinking too and the way Kakashi's tongue sweeps gently in her mouth robs her of all rational thinking, really.

She clambers on top of him, oh god, this is her patient and former teacher and teammate and the fucking commander in the war and _she's sitting on his lap_ and _kissing_ him and this really shouldn't _feel_ as good as it does and why does it feel so familiar, his kissing, when they've never done this before, never thought they would?

Yet maybe they should've, a long time ago.

When she pulls away, she feels a strange kind of gratification to see him so stunned. At least it's not just him. She traces the contours of his exposed face, marveling at it. It was like a minor miracle, a revelation, to see it, a familiar stranger standing in place of the man she'd always thought she knew, not quite so brand new.

He holds her easily and she shifts in his arms. "Hello," he says softly.

"Hello, hello," she echoes, her fingers still running down the sides of his face, marveling at her new discovery.

When he leans back into her again, she's glad to know that some discoveries aren't always an accident.


	18. Quarantine

**Quarantine (KakaSaku oneshot, PG)**

**Written for KakaSaku week, Day 2: Touch me not. **

* * *

"Unbelievable!"

Sakura had to wince at the increasing loudness of Kakashi's disbelief as the nurse from Amegakure explained—for possibly the tenth time—that due to the spread of the Rabbit Flu in the village, Kakashi and Sakura had to delay their return home for three weeks or a month.

"Rabbit flu! I don't even believe that it's a thing!" Kakashi continued to rage. Sakura had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at that. Men. They all thought they were invincible. Especially ones that were especially strong and powerful, like Kakashi.

"Never mind that, Nurse Nomoto," Sakura interrupted smoothly, pushing back Kakashi with an apologetic smile. "I know it's really difficult for you right now, with your patients and all. Kakashi and I will just keep to our holding rooms, as instructed."

"But—" Kakashi began again, and Sakura nudged him hard in the ribs.

Nurse Nomoto, pretty but worn-out, gave a little sniff of pique. "Thank you, Doctor Haruno. I knew you would understand." The nurse looked dubiously at the copy ninja. "I couldn't have hoped to get this one down if you weren't here."

"I know, he's an idiot," Sakura apologized.

"I'm standing RIGHT HERE." Kakashi called out.

Sakura rolled her eyes but switched back to smiling sweetly at Nurse Nomoto. "We'll stay right here where you want us, Nurse Nomoto. Hopefully we find a vaccine soon so that this all blows over."

"I'm hoping for that too," Nurse Nomot agreed, eyeing Kakashi warily like he were a dog about to bite. "We could really use your help, Dr. Haruno, unfortunately quarantined people aren't allowed to participate in our search for the cure."

"I know, Nurse Nomoto. I am disappointed as well. But in the meantime…"

—-

In the meantime, they had to lounge uselessly in a windowless room with only a transparent wall in between.

The first two days was easy. Kakashi had sulked, Sakura read the various medical journals the hospital had. They ate and Kakashi pointedly ignored her.

But on the third day, Kakashi had had enough. Even Icha Icha couldn't distract him any longer.

"Don't even," Sakura warned when she sensed him raise two hands together to form seals. "Don't even try to transport yourself out of here, Hatake."

"YOU don't get to tell me to do anything!"

"For your information, we are equals on this mission. So stop sulking about how I undermined your authority. Yes, I heard that," she added when she saw the look of feigned surprise on his face. He really was impossible. "Why don't you just take this as a rest? It's the universe telling you to slow down."

"I never took you for a New Age kind of woman, Sakura." Kakashi muttered as he slid down against a wall, arms crossed. "And pretty funny way of the universe to tell me to rest, inflicting a Rabbit Plague and all."

"Oh, shush. Go read your porn or something."

"Why did they even put us in separate quarters if they were going to put up a transparent wall anyway? Does Amegakure have no sense of privacy?!"

"Rabbit flu's symptoms are quite distinct, but once they begin to show, quite infectious. The transparent walls allow the doctors to view us from afar without having to come into the room." Sakura answered primly, crossing her legs as she sat down on the cot provided for her.

"Know-It-All."

"Brat."

Kakashi was silent for a few moments before speaking up again. "So why did they call it Rabbit Flu again?"

"Because your teeth grow really really large," she replied as she picked up another book.

Kakashi's head shot up. "Seriously?"

She raised an eyebrow. "What do you care? Your face is covered all the time, no one will notice your big teeth." It was a bit amusing to know that Kakashi still had a bit of vanity in him.

He snorted derisively. "You're just teasing me."

She shrugged. "Think what you want."

Kakashi spent the rest of his day devising ways to check on his front teeth without showing Sakura.

—

"I'm booooooooOOoOOred!" Kakashi whined from the next room.

Sakura ignored him as she pored over some more medical journals.

"Did you know," Kakashi tried again, crouching near the wall that separated them, "That a hundred years ago, a king tried to find out if language was innate or learned. He instructed a couple of orphan babies never to get any kind of communication, ever? You know what happened?"

Sakura serenely continued to pointedly ignore him.

This didn't deter Kakashi. "They all DIED."

He was met with a stony silence.

"Don't you see what this means? People can literally die from a lack of human interaction!"

"If you were a baby," Sakura finally said, unable to let the chance to correct someone slip up. "Babies need a lot of human contact to fortify their immune systems. A lack of communication and affection could mean poor immune systems, hence they all got sick and died."

"Which is what you're doing to ME! Rabbit fever is going to get me!"

"Here lies Hatake Kakashi: He really died of boredom," Sakura countered smoothly, finally looking up only to see that Kakashi had shed off most of his clothes, lounging around in shuriken-patterned underwear.

"K-K-KAKASHI!? WHAT IN THE WORLD?!"

"Hey, you told me to relax. This is one of the consequences,"

Sakura ignored him for the rest of the week."

—

"Scoot."

As a force of habit, Sakura awoke with the slightest sound. She was greeted by the sight of Kakashi standing next to her bed.

"Kakashi, what the hell…?!"

"I'm cold," he whined plaintively.

"Put on another sweater or something, for godsakes!" she hissed at him as she tried to block him out by putting a pillow over her head. "You're not supposed to be here anyway," she scolded, her voice muffled.

"Psh, we've done this loads of times before." Before she could further protest, Kakashi had hopped into bed and pressed close to her. "Mmm. This feels nice."

Sakura said nothing.

He touched her shoulder tentatively. "Hey."

She remained stubbornly quiet.

He sighed heavily. "Sakura, you know that I couldn't just ignore Haname, could I? Despite everything, she's still my friend."

"Well did you really have to be so friendly?" Sakura finally blurted out, unable to help herself.

"I was just doing my job!"

"Yeah," she flashed angry green eyes at him before turning away again. "Right."

"It's not like you're innocent in all of this," Kakashi joked quietly. "You know perfectly well that neither of us have Rabbit Flu, and that I hate being in small confined spaces."

"Rabbit Flu's symptoms include going a little soft in the head. You never know," Sakura countered, although there was no real bite in it anymore.

He chuckled. "How can you be so vindictive in this tiny space and still smell so nice, huh?"

"Well they aren't actually mutually exclusive, Hatake…"

"I know," he murmured. "So do you think they'll see us here…?"

"Just be very quiet," she murmured back, as she turned towards him, her hands already roving. "And be careful to keep that blanket over the both of us."


	19. Reincarnation

**Reincarnation**

Inspired by an idea that I saw floating on the KakaSaku tag where Sakura discovers that she is Rin reincarnated. (I think it's serenitytouched and sunblaze24 who discussed this. If so, this is for you!) Also I'm trying out a different writing style and /skdsa/lsj I DON'T EVEN KNOW. But the point of these drabbles/one shots is to finish them, so there. Finished. I hope you like it, guuuuys. I'm sure someone out there can do a better job than me on this prompt. (╯︵╰,)

* * *

Sakura doesn't know why Obito spared her life.

She didn't see him coming until it was too late, his ruin of a face inches away from hers, his hand held out for the killing blow. His sharingan bled red as it widened not from pure rage, but recognition.

Then she heard him say softly, almost like a lover, "…Rin?"

That one second of hesitation was all Kakashi needed as he pierced through his former's friend chest with one hand. Obito died the same way Rin did.

It was fitting, really.

—-

Kakashi heard Obito's last word, stared at Sakura in shock as the Uchiha's body fell to the ground.

Rin?

_Rin?_

—-

They didn't talk about it for months, for years. They had to recover from the war first. Questions could be asked later.

—-

But Sakura started to have the dreams.

They were hazy at first, and she thought they were a cause of the stress, her memories of missions past jumbled up in her head, made incomprehensible by her subconscious mind.

But then they started to take form, peopled by shadows and shapes that she had no memory of. Then the ghosts in her head became recognizable. Details of things she shouldn't know surfaced—The Fourth Hokage's laugh, Obito's shy smile, and Kakashi, Kakashi, always Kakashi. Kakashi's face, filled with tears. Kakashi smiling gently from beneath his mask. Kakashi kissing her.

She became privy to missions she never took part of, re-learned her former teacher in ways she never knew before. Conversations with people long dead were held before she jolted awake, tormenting her.

Most horrifying of all were recollections of her death. Recollections of being recalled from death. Obito….he did something. Did something to drag her soul back from where it slept, screaming in agony, to be pushed back into the suffocating air of the waking world. Sakura woke up screaming whenever she dreamt that particular memory.

"…Rin?" Obito's last breath haunted her.

—-

She should've told Tsunade-sama first, but she sought out Kakashi at the memorial. Her former teacher (teammate? lover? what was he?!) stood silent and melancholy at the cenotaph, flowers laid at his feet, his face completely obscured from her.

When she finally spoke, it felt like a disembodied voice speaking for her, and that she was watching from far away:

"Do you remember that one morning when Obito was late, Kakashi? And you were so mad that you actually went out to search for him? Minato-sensei was laughing, and it only got you madder. I trailed after you all throughout Konoha, and you went in all the shops, barged down in so many old people's houses. You were so pissed off, it was actually funny, but I didn't laugh…"

She broke off when she realized that Kakashi had dropped to his knees, his gaze unbelieving, tears streaming down his face, as she broke his heart in another way.

—-

They said that it was a forbidden jutsu that Obito had experimented on. They really couldn't know. Obito was dead and silent in his grave. All they had were the dreams, and even Sakura couldn't grasp what had really happened.

She tried her best to stay in the real and the now. She slipped away, sometimes, when she would be having lunch with Naruto and then she would forget who she was talking to. It frightened her, that there was this other entity living in her now, clawing its way out, demanding to be recognized and claim dominion. She was sometimes surprised when she saw her face in the mirror, and she was afraid.

Kakashi came around often, and she felt uneasy about it. Memories of romantic trysts would flood her mind at the most inconvenient times, and emotions not her own swirled around her. Kakashi was her friend and her teacher, but now her heart did unfamiliar flips whenever she saw him.

But whenever he saw her, he never talked about Rin, never addressed her as Rin. It was a small mercy, and she saw that he wanted to speak to that other her, but always refrained. She loved him for it. They spoke of mundane things, her training and her work and her friends, but sometimes she saw him glance at her, and he saw someone else. When he did, she hated him for it.

—-

"Stop looking at me like that." she begged Kakashi before he leaned in to kiss her. When she finally broke away, she was furious, furious enough to pummel him to the ground until her hands bled raw, until she forgot who he was, and who she was, who she used to be.

"I'm not the one who will grant you forgiveness," she spat out before she stormed off, as far way and as fast as she could.

—-

She didn't see him for months after that, and she threw herself fully into her life, her present, her now. She refused to live in the shadow of a dead girl, reincarnation or not.

Sakura began dreaming her own dreams again. Of Sasuke's defection, Naruto's four-tail form, Kakashi saying that he hated them all three on first meeting them.

Finally, it was Naruto, Naruto the peacemaker, who approached her about Kakashi.

"He feels really awful about everything's that happened. You should talk to him."

She was annoyed that she had to seek him out again, when he was the one who caused the trouble in the first place, but Sakura found herself being obedient to Naruto's request. He requested so rarely, and she couldn't find it in herself to deny him.

She found Kakashi at the cenotaph again, almost exactly the same way when she first came to him.

He said nothing when he saw her, but the relief he radiated was enough, as was the warm embrace he gave her.

And she forgave him. Maybe he needed that from her, even if she couldn't give it as Rin.

—-

There were good days and there were bad days, days when the unknowable past bled into her present, days when she woke up looking for people who were dead and long gone, days when she yearned for something she never had.

But he never left her side.

It was a small mercy that all the things she knew about him never bothered him. She could ask him questions about himself and he would answer them freely, never evasively, as he'd been so many years ago. Did he love Rin in that way (he did, out of loneliness and guilt), why didn't he talk to Naruto when he was younger (he was forbidden to do so), would he ever learn to forgive Obito (he was still learning to)?

—-

When Sakura fell in love with him, she knew she loved him not as Rin. It was how she loved him presently that informed her. She loved the crow's feet forming around his eyes, the slight stoop he was developing, his callused hands, the map of his scars on his body whenever she healed him. Rin would always be there, in her mind and in his heart, but she felt like Rin would approve of this new blossoming feelings for him.

One day she was out for a walk with him, and Kakashi said out of the blue:

"Do you remember when I was recovering from the war, and I wanted to get out of bed sooner than you wanted me to? I was always annoying you, but I only did that so you'd tackle me down back again. It was an excuse to touch you, really. I think I loved you back then." He said this so casually and so honestly, but it didn't surprise her, not really. He looked her directly in the eye. "I guess I didn't know quite how to love you yet." The added complication of being Rin in a past life didn't help, either, it hung unsaid in the air.

The autumn leaves fell around them, as the world continued to spin on. Kakashi looked older and greyer now, but she had never loved him more. And she knew, right then, that whatever time they had left, she would never leave his side.

She would never understand why fate brought them together in such a painful way like this, but then again she didn't understand a lot of things—only that she loved him with every fiber of her being, past and present. She felt Rin's blessing as she leaned forward to give him the briefest of kisses.


	20. The Inbetween

**The Inbetween (KakaSaku oneshot, G)**

_This is super-late and super-weird. Written for Day 6 of Kakasaku week: Heaven and Earth._

* * *

"Sakura? What are you doing here?"

The voice was strangely familiar, yet Sakura knew she hadn't heard it for a long while. Shielding her eyes against the blinding sunlight and tried to make out the person whose silhouette was fast approaching her.

"A-Asuma-sensei?!"

"Sakura! the older man grinned cheekily as the kunoichi launched herself at him, laughing. "I didn't know you were this fond of me, girl."

"No, it's just—!" Sakura disentangled herself and held the shinobi at arm's length, looking him up and down with startled eyes. "What are you doing here? I thought you were…" she trailed off.

"Dead?" Asuma chuckled as he slipped a cigarette between his lips. "Yeah. I am." Seeing the dawning realization on her face, he actually laughed some more.

"What?!" But if Asuma-sensei was dead… Instinctively, she reached to her side, a phantom pain shooting through it as she did so. Somehow, she wasn't surprised. But she was surprised. She could remember how it ended, but somehow she couldn't.

The expression on her face prompted Asuma to ask, "You alright kid?"

She shook her head."Yeah…yeah, I guess. For a dead person."

Asuma smiled. "No, you're not dead. Not yet."

"But you just said…"

He took out the cigarette from his mouth and scratched his head. "How do I explain this? **I'M**dead, yes, and maybe you're dead, too. Maybe you're not dead." He looked around vaguely. "I've never been this to this place. I usually took this walk but got curious about this one pathway, and saw you here. Guess no one else is qualified to meet you up yet."

Somehow, Sakura understood. She was glad that no one she really knew was here to meet her. "So everyone's alright…?" she ventured to ask.

Infuriatingly, Asuma shrugged, an easy movement. "Can't tell, kid. Being dead doesn't make you all-knowing."

Sakura looked around. "Can you please at least tell me where we are?"

Asuma finally lit his cigarette. Guess he didn't have to be concerned about its ill effects, Sakura mused. At least he had that. He exhaled a puff of smoke. "I don't really see anything, Sakura. You see it better."

"Well…" she looked around. "We're standing in a patch of woods…kind of like Konoha? Familiar but different. I'm pretty sure I've never been here before."

"Good, good." Asuma nodded, taking another drag of cigarette. The smoke wafted over her, unsubstantial and bearing no smell. "Do you see a way out? Any pathways, a small clearing you can head off to?"

She took a look around again and shook her head. "Nothing. It's like the trees are all closed in on us, Asuma-sensei. I'm actually surprised you made it through." Indeed, any gaps between the trees were filled up by bushes and thorny vines. Beyond, only darkness loomed. The forest was completely silent. Asuma was watching her, illuminated only by the cigarette glow and the moon.

"We're just supposed to stay put, then." Asuma said, as if that explained anything. He gestured towards a small campfire that she didn't notice before and sat down on a stump of wood.

"I would ask you how you got here," Asuma continued, stretching his legs. "But I know you don't really remember. This place can do that sometimes."

Sakura nodded, although she still wasn't quite getting a handle on what was going on. "So what do we do now?" she asked, unable to help herself.

The jounin-sensei quirked an eyebrow at her. "Urgency. I forget that the newcomers feel like that when they first come here,"

"So you're telling me that you eventually stop feeling like you want to be alive?"

He shrugged. "This is only your perception of me in this place, Sakura. But to give you a more straightforward answer, yes, I did want to go back. I had Kurenai. And our child." His eyes softened as he mentioned the ones he left behind, and Sakura felt her heart tug a little. "I went out in a good way, the shinobi way, but when I woke up here, I wanted to go back. But I realized something."

It was overwhelming trying to keep up with Asuma-sensei's rhetoric, but Sakura tried. "What did you realize, Asuma-sensei?"

He smiled as he lit another cigarette. "Death is only for a little while." He chuckled at her confused look. "This place," he gestured around. "Whatever it is you see, it's essentially the same place for all of us. A waiting room. This is where you wait out your death,"

"Wait." Sakura shook her head, as if clearing out cobwebs. "Wait out your death?"

"Yeah, before you start living again."

"You're starting to creep me out, Asuma-sensei."

He threw his head back and laughed uproariously. "I'm sorry for the information dump," he apologized when he settled down. "It's just that I haven't talked to anyone for so long while waiting out my death."

"But aren't you already dead, Asuma-sensei…?"

"Aaa…" He looked thoughtful again. "I am dead. I am waiting. Waiting out my death. You see, Sakura, death is when you're alone. Until the people you love and the people who love you come along to join you. Then you can move on."

"Move on where…?" she almost whispered.

He smiled kindly. "To live again."

Asuma looked up at the moon-bright evening sky. "But he's not going to let you wait for too long. Don't you feel it, girl?"

She felt it, but could not name it. "Yes."

Asuma closed his eyes, taking it in. "He's not so ready to give you up just yet. He's bending the very fabric of this place to get you back."

Sakura shot up, her heart suddenly beating wildly against her chest. Could it be?

"You don't know who I'm talking about?" Now Asuma looked intrigued. "Ah, yes. Time is fuzzy here. Past and present doesn't exist." He looked up at the sky again. "It's not someone you expect. He doesn't expect it, either. But he loves you, always did. He'd move heaven and earth for you, even if doesn't know it yet. Can't you hear him?"

"Asuma-sensei…." But before she could say anything further, Asuma suddenly seemed far away before completely dissolving from view. He seemed to wave a hand in farewell. She tried to return the gesture, but her arm felt heavy…so heavy…

There were tears on her face. Tears mixed with blood, and they weren't hers. Groggily, Sakura focused on the face above her. Somewhere, Naruto was calling her name.

Strong hands gripped her closer.

_He's bending the very fabric of this place to get you back._

With trembling fingers, she brushed a silver lock of hair out of his face. He couldn't stop crying, he barely could keep himself up as his Sharingan bled red down on her.

"S-sensei…?"

"Sakura," Kakashi murmured as he held her closer. "Sakura."

_He'd move heaven and earth…._

They clung to each other as they grasped at their second chance of living.


	21. The Pact

**The Pact (Kakasaku oneshot, G)**

_Written for Kakasaku Day 4: Forbidden Love_

* * *

It was an unspoken rule within Team 7. Even Sai and Yamato, relative newcomers to the group, knew about it the moment they joined. That rule was even reinforced when Sasuke came back home. Funny thing was, not any of them really spoke about it.

It was an agreement that no one was to date Sakura.

Oh, it was an agreement that didn't come about easily. Naruto would've complained…if it was a rule that was brought up explicitly. But it wasn't. And Sakura never seemed to have an inclination to date the only team member who was vocal about wanting to date her. In the latter years, Naruto finally got the hint and stopped. And got in on the unspoken agreement.

Why the agreement? Well. Love triangles were no good for teamwork, and was largely a distraction. The team's history of making lifetime promises out of misdirected love also worked against them. In short, dating Sakura would just make the dynamic too complicated and the boys just sort of ended up agreeing not to go out with her to prevent things from getting too weird.

These were the things that Kakashi should've remembered before he actually started dating Sakura on the sly.

Right. There were reasons. No wonder the rest of Team 7 looked faintly murderous.

"Kakashi-sensei! I thought we had an agreement!" Naruto exclaimed, unable to help himself. It was good they decided to have this confrontation at Ichiraku, where Teuchi-san let them do pretty much whatever, interrogation included. "you could've dated someone else! Someone YOUR AGE!"

"Really, senpai," Not even his lower rank prevented Yamato from looking openly displeased. "You really thought you'd be so sly that we wouldn't notice?"

"Well, we pulled it off for a week," Kakashi offered weakly.

"Not really a week. I noticed it on the first day. I just didn't care enough to mention it," Sai said, shrugging.

"Sai!" Naruto looked betrayed. "You should've said something?"

"It was a dumb rule anyway, dickless."

"Alright! Calm down!" Sasuke interjected, annoyed. "You guys are being ridiculous," he continued when all the other eyes turned on him. "Sakura is a grown woman and can date whoever she wants."

"Surprisingly, it turned out that she didn't want you anymore," Sai observed, earning him an evil glare from the Uchiha. "She wanted the oldest out of the lot."

"Thanks Sai. Really, thanks." Kakashi said sarcastically, one eyebrow furrowing. "Very helpful." He looked around at his teammates' faces, all looking like one variety or another of annoyance. He sighed heavily, shoulders sagging. "Look guys. It's not like I'm dating her to piss you off…"

"Wouldn't be surprised if you do…" Naruto muttered darkly.

"But I only have the best intentions and to be honest, I think I am falling in love with her. No, I do." Kakashi admitted, feeling his cheeks turn red under his mask.

The looks of annoyance completely vanished at his words. "Y-you…" Yamato sputtered.

"Yeah I know Yamato. How do I know when it's too early to tell, yada yada…I just know, okay?"

His colleague slowly shook his head, and Kakashi realized that Yamato wasn't even looking at him, but at someone over his shoulder.

_Please don't be Sakura._

_Please don't be Sakura. _

"K-Kakashi…" Sakura's voice, sounding as shocked as the rest of the room. "Is this true?"

There would be a lot more explaining to do for the rest of the evening, it seemed.

—-

A/N: I kinda cheated on this! The premise was based on what happened to Gwen Stefani and her ex in No Doubt, where the boys in the band all agreed not to date Gwen but Tony Kanal ended up dating her anyway. I thought the agreement was pretty cute so I used it for the prompt!


	22. Nine Lives

**Summary:** Kakashi and Sakura lose time in different lives.

—-

**1 - Late**

He first hoped to meet her, as some people did, on a blind date.

Genma's been haranguing him for weeks about this girl. "_Come on, man, she's really pretty, and really nice", _his friend said, that toothpick perennially sticking out of his mouth.

"_If you're so enthusiastic about this girl, why don't YOU date her, Genma?" _ Kakashi remembered asking as he reached over and pulled that annoying toothpick out of Genma's annoying mouth. He remembered Genma's forced nonchalance, which only meant one thing: Genma HAD had tried, and failed.

"_Not my type." _Genma had said. As expected, it sounded like an excuse.

But certainly there had been something in the girl that has convinced Genma that it would be nice idea—no, a GREAT idea, to send Kakashi on a blind date on. Considering that Genma's never gone out of his way to play matchmaker before, Kakashi had to concede and agree to it, if only to shut Genma up.

And he's really regretting it now. He's only realized a few hours before that he didn't have any clean shirts and had to hurriedly do laundry. He'd gone overboard and rushed through the whole process, and now he's reeking of laundry detergent soap. Strange. It wasn't like him to be so self-conscious.

Genma hadn't been very forthcoming with what this Sakura girl is like, only the repeated reiterations of being "nice" and "pretty" which made Kakashi pretty sure that she was probably met minimum requirements and that he was probably going to regret being here at all.

All thoughts of what she was like dwindled into boredom until it began to build up to a realization that he had been sitting there for nearly an hour with no show of his blind date. The hell? He checked his watch. Five minutes to nine. He looked around. The restaurant was already peopled by couples and groups, most already well into their meals. He felt a faint wave of panic. Had he been stood up? The panic was quickly replaced by a sense of indignation. How could she? After he'd gone with all the trouble of doing laundry when he didn't feel like doing laundry!

Already building up this indignation in his mind, Kakashi angrily motioned for a waiter. The waiter, a tall young man with a mess of bright yellow hair, approached with a smile.

Kakashi is still fuming with the realization that he'd been stood up. Stood up by a blind date he didn't even want to go to. "I'd like to ask for the check please."

"Of course, sir," the waiter responded automatically, but instead of leaving to do what Kakashi asked, the younger man hovered, uncertain.

"Yes?" Kakashi barked, eyebrows furrowing.

"I'm sorry sir…were you here on a date?" He can't believe it. This evening was getting worse and worse.

"And…?"

"Well, there was a young lady who came in an hour before you did sir…" there must have been something his features were doing on its own that was causing the young man to become more and more nervous –as if Kakashi might actually deck him. He was in the mood to.

"She came here at seven o'clock…?!" Kakashi asked, as he mentally counted back the time the waiter was alleging to.

"Er…she was here at eight, sir."

That couldn't be right. Kakashi glanced at his watch. It read nine. Suddenly his indignation was replaced by chagrin, and just a little bit of horror. "Can I see your time?"

"Sure, sir." The waiter presented a bright orange watch with little ramen bowls printed all over it. Kakashi was unable to appreciate its finer points as the watch clearly read: ten o'clock.

His watch must have slowed down, as it sometimes did when its battery was close to dying out. Damn. Damn damn damn damn. He must have sat there with a dazed look on his face for a beat longer than was comfortable, and the waiter began to fidget.

"Sir?"

"Yeah," he nodded numbly. "I'll get the check, I guess."

The waiter nodded smartly. Before he turned to go, Kakashi couldn't help but call out—

"Waiter?"

The boy paused. "Sir?"

He really hated himself asking. "What did she look like?"

"Oh." The waiter exhaled, and actually blushed. "Pretty, sir. Gorgeous." There was something in his voice that suggested that HE wouldn't have left such a pretty girl waiting.

Kakashi felt his heart drop to his stomach. He disciplined his expression to absolute stoicism and nodded. "Alright, then. Thanks."

_It's no big deal, _he told himself as the waiter walked away. _No big deal. I'm just going to apologize through Genma and I'm gonna have another date with her, make it up to her somehow… this was all a big mistake. _He couldn't really explain why he felt so…so…disappointed. He tried to put the feeling under "guilt for accidentally standing up a girl" but it wasn't. Not really. If he'd known he'd feel this disappointed, well, Kakashi would've been more careful. But that was neither here nor there. What's done was done.

A week later Genma told him that the pink-haired had politely, but definitely, turned down a possibility for another date with Kakashi.

Damn.

**2 – Forbidden**

When he had actually met her, his first thought was: _Am I in the right place?_

Kakashi stood there in the door in his uniform, an honourable discharge letter in his pack, in his muddy boots and wrinkled uniform as the teenaged girl that answered his knock ambled uncertainly behind a half-open door.

"Yes?" the pink-haired girl asked softly.

He realized he can't stop looking at her. It was hard to avoid, of course, since she had answered the door but there was something about her…

This WAS his house, wasn't it? He quickly shifted his thoughts to the matter at hand. This humble two-bedroom affair that looked over the sea that he remembered carrying Rin into before he was shipped off with the rest of the troops. He wondered if Rin had abandoned him, as he heard sometimes soldiers' girls did, out of boredom or despair or impatience, he never knew.

"I'm—I'm looking for Rin. I'm—I'm—" he still had a hard time speaking after that incident.

"Yes, this is her house," the girl responded. Those green eyes narrowed, and then there was a look of understanding as she widened the door gap. "Are you—are you Kakashi?"

He nodded, and the girl was gone in a flash, yelling her sister's name throughout the house. And then Rin herself emerged, flour on her cheeks and disbelief in her eyes as she approached.

"Kakashi?"

His tongue suddenly seemed frozen, his body in shock, when he finally saw Rin's face, as if he were preparing to run into the frontline all over again. Was this a dream? He suddenly wasn't sure if he was awake or asleep. All he could do was give the tiniest of nods.

"Oh my god…oh my god!" And all at once Rin's arms are around him, and his pack is on the floor, and just behind his wife is her pink-haired sister, crying. Crying tears of joy for her sister.

"You're home! I can't believe it!"

"I'm sorry, I would've contacted you sooner but…"

"It's alright; you're here and that's all that matters." She was always so considerate and strong, his Rin.

"This is Sakura," Rin finally said as she disentangled herself from him, her brown eyes still wet and disbelieving. Kakashi extends a hand. His mind transported from disbelief to a whole mess of feelings but as he extended his at Rin's little sister, all he felt at that moment was that same jolt of recognition.

But he's never met her before.

Something like disappointment were in Sakura's eyes when she lets go of his hand, but she seems confused when she sees it reflected in his eyes. He doesn't understand it either.

"She's going to get married next week, I'm so happy you'll be here to see it," Rin went on, oblivious.

**3 – Age Gap**

"I guess, some things just don't work out," Sakura sighed, eyes trained on the streets below. Outside, cars zipped through and fro, children were let out of their classes, and people went about their daily lives.

Another failed relationship, another waste of time. She had hoped that Sasuke would take the news of her moving to university well, but he had just very calmly said that it wouldn't work. Despite her asking him to reconsider, he was just…_mad _that she had gone ahead with her plans. Had he been expecting any other outcome from her application? In any case, what's done was done, and all she could do now is look outside and sigh heavily.

Kakashi clambered onto the chair opposite her. She grinned a little when she saw him mimic her dejected posture, slumping onto the table, chin buried into his arms. She was going to miss him.

"Why are you sad?" he asked.

She reached over and ruffled his silver-white hair affectionately. She remembered when she first did that, the way he scrunched up his nose. "Because this is our last day together," she said softly.

He frowned. "Liar. You broke up with your boyfriend, that's why."

Sakura threw back her head and laughed. So smart for a little boy. "Alright. And that," she admitted wryly.

"I'd marry you," Kakashi said, pulling out a thread from his sweater. "So you won't be sad anymore."

"I'm sure your mum won't be so keen on the idea, but that is very sweet of you," Sakura said. "And I'll be off to Uni tomorrow, I'd meet so many friends, and you'll have a new nanny too. You might want to marry her better."

"I hate this," Kakashi declared. "I always keep missing you."

"Whatever do you mean, Kakashi?" Sakura said, astonished. She had been the child's nanny for nearly a year now, six days a week. Maybe he was undergoing some kind of separation anxiety?

But Kakashi remained stubbornly silent for the rest of the day and ignored all overtures of making nice with Sakura.

Before she left, she had insisted on shaking hands, at the very least. Then, when he finally did, Kakashi said the most surprising thing. With a determined little frown, he said: "I'm gonna find you in time, next time. For real."

"Alright, Kakashi." Sakura had to placate him somehow. "Alright."

She never did see Kakashi again. The family had moved to another city by the time the holidays came around.

**4 – Uncovered**

He had reached her just in time.

His face was half-covered—it was just below zero degrees that evening and he had his scarf on. She had forgotten that she was in a city whose streets were oriented the other way around.

Neither of them didn't even have time to shout, nor scream. His eyes were dark underneath the neon lights.

He merely reached out—and pushed her onto the sidewalk. A screech of tires, a sickening sound of a body breaking, and a heavy thud on the street, and images that would be burned into her mind forever.

Sakura hurried over to the fallen man on the street, ignoring the shouts and the truck driver running over. Frightened tears spilled onto her face as she crouched over him, the man with silver-white hair. He simply gazed up to her and smiled as she cupped his cheek and said goodbye.

**5 – Genius**

She was under strict orders not to speak with any of Tokyo's pilots.

Sad as it was to see her country divided in such a way, Sakura had worked too long and too hard to risk her standing as the pilot of Kyoto's first war machine, or a robot, the more popular term adopted by many. Officially, this was to be a conference between two powerful conglomerates racing to complete their first war-capable robot. The space race was nothing compared to the rivalry of Shinseko and Torayami Industries.

"This is our pilot, Haruno Sakura," Shinseko's president, Uchiha Itachi was saying.

Jiraiya, the head of Torayami, merely leered at her. "She's a little bit young, isn't she, Uchiha-san?"

"We excel early in Kyoto, Jiraiya-san. I believe you made a similar comment when I was elected as president by the Board?" Itachi countered smoothly, nary a trace of irritation on his handsome features. And he was telling the truth—Sakura had been the top of her class, the best at everything, her whole life. Sakura couldn't say the same for Jiraiya, however. The man had some unsavoury rumors floating around him that wouldn't just go away…and Torayami's "old age" was going to be highlighted further by the arrival of their own test pilot.

"Hatake! So honoured you could finally join us," Jiraiya said sarcastically. Torayami's pilot merely shrugged, and bowed at her and Itachi.

"Hatake Kakashi, at your service," he said formally. He shook Itachi's hand, and then reached out to shake hers. Sakura bowed slightly, and extended hers. But before they could touch, Itachi had steered her away.

"Better not," the dark-haired man murmured under his breath. "You don't know what spying device they'd try to attach with that one handshake."

"But sir…!"

"Just take my word for it, Haruno."

She threw a glance over her shoulder to look at Hatake. She smiled faintly, and hoped he would see the apology in her eyes. Hatake stood straight and tall, hands behind his back, and nodded ever so slightly. He understood. She felt an inexplicable twinge of regret for meeting this way.

**6 - Forgetfulness**

"And you're _sure _this is the bag she was looking at?"

"Absolutely certain, Ms. Haruno. Your mother even mentioned that she was always curious about this one, but that there wasn't anyone tall enough to get it without using a ladder, and she didn't want to cause anyone trouble."

Sakura inspected the item he presented carefully. "Never thought my mother as the Kelly type," she murmured ruefully.

"Maybe she was just waiting for the tall person to allow her to be," he found himself saying.

She glanced up at him. She was a short, slight person, with pink hair carefully arranged around her heart-shaped face. Her eyes were smart and kind, and everything she wore looked expensive, and probably was. He could see she was amused. "Funny," she said, smiling, "Didn't know Hermes required a stand-up comedy in their requirements when getting employees."

"I didn't include it in my CV. Probably how I got in," he supplied helpfully. He didn't even know Hermes from hairspray before he got this job. But it was all worth it the moment she stepped in the shop. He'd been wondering how he'd go about asking her out since last week.

"Maybe I could interest you in a baseball bat? Hermes has a lovely one, and it would make for a very unique gift." Damn. There was a trace of nervousness in his voice, and he could already feel her losing interest in the Kelly bag, in him. Suddenly he felt old and ugly and just lame and…

"No, thank you," she lightly pushed the bag back to him, smiling politely. "Thank you for all your help…"

"Kakashi," he said.

"Kakashi," he could practically see her filing the name at the back of her head for reference. "I'll think about it." For one second he thought he'd already asked her out, but he remembered that she was referring to the bag.

"Have a good day," he called out, but she had already exited the store.

He was putting the bag back when he noticed a slip of paper sticking out from underneath it. Ms. Haruno must've had left it behind. Curious, he pulled it out:

_Dear Mr./Ms./__Mrs.__ Haruno,_

_Mr.__/Ms. Kakashi Hatake has had Mr./__Ms.__ Sakura Haruno erased from his memory. Please never mention their relationship to her/__him __again._

_Thank you._

_Lacuna Inc._

**7 – Lost**

She had envisioned her vacation in Paris as dreamlike and ideal, but for all her preparation, Sakura didn't expect her phone to mysteriously lose its battery, and for her friend to go ahead without her.

She brandished her map of the city like a weapon. Who to go to? She spotted a rather distinguished-looking gentleman sitting outside one of the nearby cafes, glasses propped on the bridge of his nose, reading the paper.

She was usually shy when approaching strangers, but this was an emergency. "Excuse me—Excusez moi—" she didn't really try with the accent, and the man raised one silvery brow at her. "Do you speak English?" she finally burst out in irritation. She had heard that French people could be quite snooty with their accent.

"Je ne parle pas anlglais?"

"Please, I just need to find—"

He raised one hand up, brooking no protest. But instead of turning away to ignore her altogether, he put two hands on her shoulders, guiding her until she sat on the seat opposite him. "Just wait—" he finally said, in a thick French accent. "Just wait. They come." He gestured to the empty cup in front of him. "Uhh—'ow you say this—café? Vous voulez de café?"

"I'm sorry sir, but I really don't have the time—"

"Ino—your friend, oui? Elle me connaît," he pointed to himself, as if he expected her to understand. It was good enough, Sakura thought as she carefully folded her map. It was broad daylight, and there were people around…but she wasn't going to drink that coffee, polite or no.

"Ino—I know her father. Je sais que son père," he added, as if that explained anything.

That Ino was going to get voules-vou'd up her ass if Sakura had any say on how the day was going to go. She sighed and took a good look at café dude. It was really too bad he was being weird. He was kind of cute. She took a peek at the map again, just to orient herself. The man seemed content to let Sakura just sit there, and didn't even protest when the coffee went cold.

After several minutes, Ino herself appeared. She wore a beatific smile, like she hadn't just ditched her best friend who was a stone's throw away from getting lost and mugged in Paris.

"Sakura! I went out to get some croissants!" Ino exclaimed. Her blue eyes quickly darted to their companion. "I see you've met my neighbour, Mr. Kakashi Hatake."

"'Ello," Kakashi made a small wave at the newcomer. At her arrival, he talked rapid French to Ino and made his exit.

"I can't believe you ditched me!" Sakura hissed furiously when she was sure that the man was out of earshot. "And why is his name not French?"

"I got you breakfast, Forehead. You're welcome. And I don't know what the deal with that guy is either. My dad knows him but I've never seen that guy talk to anyone else. And this is the first time he's actually spoken to me, to be honest."

"Weird," Sakura said softly. But she brushed it aside and brought her map upfront. "So! I really wanted to see like, everything. I'm kinda on a tight schedule since my flight back home is tomorrow…"

**8 – Secret**

She'd made him handmade chocolates for Valentine's Day, but she was too chicken to say it came from her.

This unfortunate tendency towards shyness continued until graduation day, and even by then, it was too late.

The last Sakura had heard of Kakashi, he was happily married with two small children.

**9 – On Time**

"You just have to suck it up and push it in, Kakashi."

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Too late—it's a dislocated shoulder. It's already hurting."

She had a point. And it wasn't like he'd never punched her like he meant it during all those training sessions ago. But now she wasn't fighting back and this just felt—-

"JUST DO IT!" Sakura yelled.

He grasped her shoulder with two hands, getting a firm grip, locating where the socket should go by sensation alone, and then pushed it back in.

"GODFUCKINGDAM—" Sakura roared angrily, before Kakashi pulled her into a hug, muffling the expletives into his chest.

"There, there," he said comfortingly, patting her shoulder. When the tense shoulders finally relaxed, he allowed her to pull back from him. Eyes closed, she raised her good arm to apply her healing chakra over the dislocated shoulder.

He let her be. "That thing aside, I'd say the mission went pretty well, I think."

"You mean chasing Hanabi's rabbit back? Tch! I can't believe they ranked that an A-mission because it's a Hyuga rabbit. What's Tsunade-sama even thinking?" He was using his calm and "I'm the reasonable one here" voice and that irritated her.

"You know as well as I do that missions don't get always ranked by difficulty. They become priority depending on how much the client's willing to pay. And let me add, for all your complaining about this mission, it didn't stop you from going all-out on it, hence dislocating your arm."

She ignored this. "I just don't understand why they'd put a kage bunshin on a rabbit and then let it roam free? If the Hyuugas just wanted to make a hefty donation, they shouldn't have made this joke of a mission," Sakura groused.

"It's their money," Kakashi said, shrugging lazily. He touched her shoulder gently. "How's that feeling?"

"Better now, thanks."

They sat in companionable silence for a while, save for the usual sounds of Konoha's woods.

"We make a good team, you and I," Kakashi finally said at length.

Sakura closed her eyes and leaned against a tree. "You sound surprised."

"That shouldn't be surprising. My surprise, I mean. I hardly ever paired up with you."

She cracked one eye open. "And whose fault you think was that? You always favoured Sasuke, and later when he was gone, Naruto. And when neither were around, you went off your own, doing god knows what." She didn't want to sound bitter, but she couldn't help the rising volume of her voice.

Kakashi must've noticed it too. "But I'm recognizing it now, and that's the important thing."

"Yes you do sound very impressed. I'm honoured and overwhelmed by your recognition," Sakura murmured as she resumed her resting position.

"I always seem to be missing you, overlooking you. That seems to be my greatest fault."

"Well, if we're talking FAULTS here…"

"Alright, alright, that's enough," Kakashi sounded irritable for once. "Can't you just take a compliment, Sakura?"

"Nope, learned not to put much stock into it, it just messes with your head." She gestured very aggressively around her general head area to put emphasis on it.

"How sad, your generation of cynics."

"Says the man who's been insincere and lying about his lateness all my life," Sakura let out a short laugh. "Now shockingly wants me to take him at face value."

"Why are you so mad at me?"

"I'm not mad at you!" Sakura's eyes fluttered open, shocked at this accusation. "It's just that it feels like you're trying to strike up a friendship that we've never had, alright? And you really don't have to. I get it, okay? You don't notice me, and you were never just interested. Just…leave it at that."

She closed her eyes again and let her fall back again with a small _thunk. _It occurred to him how little he knew about how he had hurt Sakura in his own careless way, and that he had missed the coming of age of a magnificent shinobi in the process. She was right, of course—Sakura was hardly the type of person who would make such emotional accusations nowadays, but even when she did, she was almost always right on the money anyway.

But…

"You're wrong, you know."

"About what?"

"I do…notice you."

She hummed noncommittally.

"Your hair's getting to that length where it's bothersome for you," Kakashi began. "You're going to make plans to have it properly cut, but as per usual, you're going to do it yourself because you've overloaded your schedule with the hospital once again."

"Hand the man a trophy, we have a winner," Sakura said softly.

"I know about all the times you insisted on rescuing me, whenever I was in trouble," Kakashi added, starting to feel annoyed at Sakura despite himself. "And—and when I landed in the hospital, you were always the first person to visit me and the last person to check up on me before I was released. You also did a very clever thing with my mask so to ensure people wouldn't look at my face while I was knocked out. You were always mindful of my wishes even when you were curious, yourself."

Sakura didn't reply at this, but had gone very still, eyes still closed.

"And after Sasuke left, you cried every day for a year, and you didn't want anyone to know," he finished.

She shot up, her back straight as an arrow. "How could you know that?"

He met her gaze frankly. "You're still Team 7 and I had to look after you…"

"I know that!" Her eyes suddenly filled with tears. "You knew it all that time and you didn't do anything, you didn't say anything?! You—you and Naruto left me all alone, Kakashi! Why tell me this now? I needed you back then!"

She was going to run away, and he gripped her good arm tightly to prevent her from doing so. "I'm sorry, alright?! I'm sorry. I just…"

"What, you just didn't want to deal with silly old Sakura and her little schoolgirl crush?" There was no denying the bitterness in her tone now. She raised her arm to shake him free, but he clung on stubbornly.

"It wasn't like that at all!" He was getting aggravated despite himself.

"Then what was it like, Kakashi? Because I would LOVE to know!" Sakura said harshly. Her bright green eyes were burning with anger now. "You think I'm going to have any sympathy for you? Well guess what, I really am mad at you now!"

"I just didn't think I was good enough," Kakashi said softly.

Sakura snorted. "What the hell does that even mean?"

"I just—" he struggled to find the words, and he could see that Sakura's patience was wearing thin. How could he make her understand? "After Sasuke abandoned Konoha, I felt like letting you and Naruto go was the best option. If Sasuke hadn't left, I wouldn't allow you to train under anyone else, Sannin or not, but…after Sasuke I just felt like everything I touched went to dust. I—I couldn't let that happen to you two. And even after you stayed in Konoha I thought…well I thought, we spent the least time together, didn't we? You wouldn't miss your foolish old teacher who did nothing but disappoint you."

He expected an angry response from Sakura, but he was unprepared when she launched herself at him, holding him very tightly.

"You—you stupid idiot! I needed you! You don't know how much!" she sobbed into his shirt.

She seemed so fragile and breakable. "I know Sakura—I'm sorry. I see I did it all wrong now."

She drew back and he couldn't help but rub his fingers against her tear-stained cheek. She laughed at the gesture. "We're Team 7, okay? We stick together, whatever happens."

"I'm sorry, Sakura."

She sniffled. "It's alright," she said. And he knew she meant it. He put an arm around her and drew her closer.

"Thank you," he said softly.

"And you're not that old!" she whined. He chuckled at that.

They sat like that for a while, Kakashi's cheek resting against Sakura's head. And that…that felt right, in an odd sort of way. Neither of them wanted to break the peace that they had just won, and he wasn't going to make the first move. He could feel Sakura drifting off, her hands folded neatly at her lap. He would never overlook her again, he promised himself. He'd always keep an eye out for her.

As he drifted off to sleep, Kakashi had the strangest but most comforting sensation of, for once, so certainly, being on time.


	23. Misunderstandings

**Misunderstandings (kakasaku oneshot)**

Dedicated to neonanything, who drew a comic that inspired this one-shot! I'm so sorry this was late ;O;

—-

It was a lovely day for a date. The sky was impressively blue, the birds were doing their annoying chirping thing, the air was clean and crisp and cool. It was one of those days that Kakashi usually read about usually near the happy ending of an Icha Icha novel.

That's why Yamato and Sakura sitting under a tree, whispering to each other and giggling, didn't seem suspicious at all. Not one bit. Kakashi wasn't going to be bothered by it. Pssh. Who cared what Sakura did. He cared less about what Yamato did. His kohai could be stuck in a tree and he'd forget all about it.

It was totally by chance that he spotted Sakura dressing up nicely for a day off at work and meet Yamato at an obviously pre-arranged spot. Nose in his book, Kakashi shadowed Sakura for a while, careful that she wouldn't be alerted to his presence care of his super secret ninja ways. Or maybe she just didn't care that he'd find about her secret rendezvous.

Somehow, that last thought didn't seem very comforting.

He watched from his hiding place as Sakura neatly folded her legs beneath her as she sat next to Yamato. His kohai's face was a blushing profusely—he didn't need a Sharingan to see that. Kakashi could also smell the heavy perfume that Sakura was wearing, and he craned in for a closer look.

"Ahh—Sakura-chan…thanks very much for coming out to meet me here today," Yamato said, flushing an even deeper red. The man was practically a tomato by now.

"You know I don't mind, taichou," Sakura reassured gently. "You don't have to feel embarrassed around me."

"Haha…is that so? I'm lucky then!" Yamato ducked his head in an almost apologetic way as he scratched the back of his head with one hand. "S-so…HEREPLEASETAKEIT." He unceremoniously shoved a white envelope in Sakura's hands. Kakashi noticed that Yamato had even put a pink little heart sticker to secure the envelope's fold.

_How cute,_ Kakashi thought. _If you were nine years old._

If Yamato seemed strange, or outright deranged, Sakura didn't comment on it. The kunoichi merely smiled and plucked the envelope out of Yamato's hands. Not good. Not good. How come Kakashi had never been alerted to this development between the two? Sakura looked like she was actually _encouraging_ Yamato, god forbid, as he saw her pat the man's shoulder in what seemed to be a reassuring manner.

Had she actually gone mad? He knew that her first love turned out to be a psychopathic killer who had dedicated his life to revenge, but maybe she had gone for the total opposite a little too far? Sure, Yamato was nice and dependable, but in Kakashi's opinion, _outright boring. _For Sakura, anyway. He was sure Yamato didn't interest her with his lame scary faces. It was wrong, all wrong. Sakura needed something fierce and strong. Her equal. She'd crush Yamato's spirit a week into their relationship.

Something had to be done, Kakashi thought as he watched Sakura walk away, a lithe form with a pink halo around her head.

Something had to be done, and he was the man to do it.

Kakashi convinced himself that Sakura and Yamato would thank him for it.

—

"Yo."

Kakashi didn't allow Yamato to respond by dropping squarely on the man's head. The younger man, caught entirely by surprise, yelled and crashed into the ground as Kakashi gracefully hopped off Yamato's butt.

"S-sempai!" Yamato stammered, red all over again, but annoyed too, as he sat back up.

"Your alertness is off Yamato, you need more training," Kakashi advised, as he calmly flipped a page.

"Well did you have to land on my head—HEY!" There was a heavy thud as Yamato just narrowly avoided Kakashi's heel landing squarely on his head (again).

The dark-haired man didn't look amused now. "Senpai…what the hell is your problem?" He demanded.

"I slipped," Kakashi lied as he suddenly appeared in front of Yamato and elbowed his nose.

Yamato reeled, still more confused than hurt. Kakashi still was reading his book intently. "Senpai, do I owe you money or something—HEY!"

Kakashi now had stepped on Yamato's foot.

And so they went for nearly an hour. Yamato parrying or dodging Kakashi's blows in a decidedly confused manner, while Kakashi pressing on, all the time without looking up from his book. This was good, Kakashi thought, satisfied. Eventually, Yamato would have to break…

"Break." Yamato suddenly said, his voice full of exhaustion. Kakashi finally looked up, surprised. He had actually landed a couple of hits. Maybe Yamato needed more training. Or maybe he just didn't want to strike back. Either way, Yamato looked like he gave up. "I need a break. Shinobi rules, or whatever. You can't continue attacking someone who's given up."

"Alright then," Kakashi conceded calmly, putting his book aside. "Where to, Yamato?"

But before Yamato could even respond, Kakashi had a brainwave. He had heard something Yamato say something to Sakura, a place where she had to be..

"I know…" Kakashi continued smoothly. "Let's go to Ichiraku."

He didn't know if he should feel sympathetic or gratified to see Yamato turn white as a sheet.

"Ichiraku?" The younger man gulped nervously. "Are you sure senpai? I mean Naruto drags us there almost everyday and I'm getting sick of it to be honest and…"

"Now now," Kakashi interrupted, waving Yamato's excuses away like dry leaves in an autumn breeze. "Don't be like that. You know that Ichiraku is practically a cultural treasure of Konoha. And anyway, Naruto's been out on a mission for two weeks now. Surely, that's enough of a break?"

"Well…." Yamato began doubtfully.

"Good! Let's go!" Kakashi grabbed Yamato's wrist and transported them instantly to the ramen shop. He dropped the younger man gracelessly, causing him to crash on the floor.

As expected, Sakura was in Ichiraku, which, in Kakashi's mind, already explained Yamato's stammering and pale face. She was sitting at the bar, her back turned to the newcomers, and, surprisingly enough, waving the white envelope with the heart seal around in the air.

_Well, she seems pretty open about it, _Kakashi thought as he felt a weird drop in his stomach. _Maybe I shouldn't have given Tenzou such a difficult time…_

His train of thought was interrupted when Sakura, hearing the almighty crash of Yamato's body hitting the floor, swivelled in her seat, wide green eyes surprised. She opened her mouth to speak, but someone else came into view.

"Sakura-san…are you alright? I heard a noise…" Ayame asked as she leaned forward on the booth.

"Oh…it's just…Yamato…getting his ass kicked," Sakura replied to the other woman, still looking confused. "Oh and by the way," she handed the envelope to Ayame. "That beat-up guy over there asked me to give this to you. But he might have changed his mind. Maybe that's why he's here with his…uhh…grand entrance."

Sakura's eyes snapped from the rather pathetic heap Yamato made on the floor right back to the one exposed eye of Kakashi, who was making his own dawning realization.

He scratched his cheek in what he hoped to pass of as an absentminded gesture. "…oops?"

But Ayame had seemed to have forgotten about the letter altogether as she rushed to Yamato's aid. "Yamato-kun!" the dark-haired woman exclaimed. "Are you alright?"

Yamato was sporting a bruised eye as he weakly held a thumbs-up, but Kakashi could've sworn that his kohai never looked happier as Ayame held him in her arms.

—

"So what was all THAT about?"

After some apologizing and paying for things out of his own wallet, Kakashi was pretty sure that Yamato had forgiven him. Not that Yamato had a choice.

"What was what?" Kakashi asked calmly as he flipped a page of his Icha Icha. It was honestly too dark to read now, but he'll be damned if he pretended to care any more than he cared to show.

"I didn't know you played soccer. And by soccer I mean you kicking Yamato around and Yamato is the soccer ball."

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about." Flip, flip.

Sakura sighed heavily, irritated. "Was this part of his plan? You beat him up, so she could rescue him?"

"You do Tenzou a disservice by implying that, Sakura." Another flip. "I just thought I should stop some foolishness from happening."

This last sentence made Sakura stop in her tracks. "Excuse me? Foolishness?" She misunderstood and put her hands on her hips. "What's wrong with Ayame?"

"Nothing's wrong with Ayame, it's just…"

"What? She is a perfectly sweet girl and Yamato doesn't have a lot of moves, doesn't have moves at all. In fact, he had to meet up with me beforehand because his hands get all sweaty and yucky around Ayame so he needed my help and…" Realization dawned on the kunoichi's face.

"You were jealous!" she breathed.

"Was not," Kakashi countered mildly. Flip, flip.

"You were soooooo jealous!" Sakura sang, smug as a bug in a rug. She began dancing around, singing, "You're so jealous! Just admit it!"

There was a blush creeping up his cheeks now. "Yeah, okay. Maybe I was just a little jealous."

"Called it."

"It was totally Tenzou's fault, you know."

"Yes, and not your inability to ask before jumping to conclusions."

The two continued to bicker lightly as they made their way home.

FIN.


	24. You Have Such a Smile

**i have so many scars, but you have such a smile (kakasaku one-shot)**

-walks in the kakasaku tag 15 minutes late with starbucks fanfic-

**Author notes:** Yeah I know I said I wasn't going to write one shots for a while but a mental image of Kakashi in a train station caught my imagination and this happened ^^;;. Unbeta'd.

**Summary:** _He thinks about new worlds and all the possibilities_

—

Sakura shows up on his doorstep one day and asks if she could tag along with his mission because Naruto is too noisy and Sai is too quiet and Yamato never knows what to say to her and boys are _weird_, Sensei, can you please let me come with? She promises not to be a hindrance.

Kakashi notes how she leaves out his own name in her litany of complaints against Team Seven, and there's a note of desperation in her voice. In any case, he says yes, and she shoves herself through his door, dumping her pack unceremoniously on the floor. She's chattering away a mile a minute: that she's already asked permission to come with him, that she's been cooped up at the hospital too long, and she's not going to ask to be paid extra on the mission. Kakashi trails after her, only half-listening as Sakura makes herself at home in his tiny one-bedroom apartment. She isn't here often, but she knows her way enough to know where to drag out his extra blankets and pillows, where to get dressed for the night.

He hasn't said one word to interrupt her as she makes herself comfortable in his couch, and falls silent as she curls into sleep.

Kakashi covers her with a blanket as she begins to snore lightly.

—-

They're on a caravan that contains some dusty scrolls and deep sea pearls, in transit to be housed in some museum in Fire Country. It's as routine as routine can be, but Kakashi has been taking more of these as of late. It's relaxing, in a way. He likes it. It gives him something to do.

Sakura keeps to her word and is the epitome of helpfulness. Years of doing missions together have fine-tuned her to read Kakashi very well. It occurs to him that perhaps he should find this annoying; as his carefully-cultivated air of nonchalance is something he practically considers an art form. It's not a complete surprise though. Sakura is subtle in ways Naruto isn't, sensitive in ways Sai could never be, assertive in ways Yamato could only hope to be. She's only around when he wants her to be, and takes off the moment she senses he doesn't want her around.

He idly wonders why she's here. She sits across him at a campsite in the middle of nowhere, drinking tea and scribbling notes furiously in a notebook. It occurs to him that maybe he should be asking her why she's here; ask her how she's feeling as of late.

Sakura looks up briefly from her notes to shoot him a quick smile.

He brews a pot of tea for her and leaves it near her feet. He knows she appreciates it.

—-

The landscape is an unending sea of listless dirt and shrubbery. Sakura provides welcome relief with her pink hair and easy smile. Her eyes are green like spring.

Kakashi's never been one for words, but he thinks this one day as she talks to him about something inconsequential. It disturbs him a little bit so he spends the rest of the conversation thinking about how terrible Sakura's flak jacket fits on her, how the dull green clashes against her hair.

—

He jolts awake from a nightmare.

He's nodded asleep somehow. In the unending tedium of the trail, it is bound to happen at some point. He can still feel his dead friend's hands circling around his throat as Obito murmurs a chant of death.

_Die, Kakashi!_

_Die, trash!_

Obito. If only it had been that easy.

He senses Sakura's eyes on him before he even sees her. He flinches slightly when she touches him, but stops himself just enough from pushing her away altogether. Her touch is firm but gentle as she forces him to face her. She lifts his hitai-ate slightly.

"Sensei…your eye is bleeding."

He realizes that she is right, but she pulls away his hand before he could touch it. She produces bandages and other sterilizing agents, laying them out in quick, neat movements. She daubs the blood away, checking for any cuts. He feels her hesitation when she asks him to open his left eye for her to investigate further.

She doesn't flinch away when she meets the blood-red gaze of the Sharingan. She pulls the skin underneath and peers into it critically. In this moment as his Sharingan affixes itself on her, Sakura becomes a being of light, of chakra swirls and pulsing energy. The way her muscles tense and move tells him that she's about to touch his face very softly.

She does, but before she does, she asks:

"Sensei, why are you crying?"

—

Sakura orders bed rest for a day. It strangely touches him that she leaves his Icha Icha next to the breakfast she prepares for him.

—

"Is it Obito? The nightmares, I mean."

Sakura is staring off into the horizon when she finally asks him about what happened the other night.

"I didn't know the Sharingan could bleed from nightmares," she continues.

_More often than I'd like to admit, _he thinks. "From stress," Kakashi says instead, shoving his hands in his pockets. He walks over to stand next to her. "You don't have to worry about it, Sakura. It's happened before, and I don't think it's a cause for concern."

"Nightmares have always been part of the job," she says, sounding unconvinced. She reaches up and touches his covered eye lightly, like a caress. "But guilt…"

It's too kind, and he can't bear it.

He steps away from her touch and doesn't talk to her for the rest of the day.

—-

They talk of nothing of consequence for the next few days. Her work at the hospital (tedious), his opinion on retaining bloodlines (interesting), the war recovery efforts (difficult), and finally, she looks at him and his covered eye and says, "That's the last one."

He immediately knows what she's talking about. He rubs over his left eye self-consciously. "Yeah," he says finally, then falls quiet. He wishes he can say something glib and careless, like he used to do. But he can't. Not with Sakura, anyway, not when she's looking at him with those earnest eyes of hers.

The last Sharingan dies with him. The thought almost makes him want to laugh, considering that they were just talking about bloodlines earlier. The Uchiha clan wiped out, for good or ill.

"Do you regret it? Sasuke?" He finds himself asking.

He almost regrets asking it because something in her eyes suddenly become closed and shuttered when she hears that name. He wonders if this whole mission is even a good idea, if it's going to end up a round robin of awkward questions and answers.

She pulls on her glove, mulling on her answer. He's about to apologize and change the topic when she abruptly says, "No."

There is something like steel in her voice when she adds, "He tried to hurt the people I love. I did what I had to do."

Kakashi was not there when Sakura dealt the killing blow, and in a great part he is relieved that he wasn't, wouldn't have known who he would have chosen to protect in the situation Sakura found herself in. She was stronger in the ways he did not know how to give her credit for.

He simply puts one hand over hers as she begins to cry.

—-

A day before they arrive at the city and Sakura is invited to try on the precious deep sea pearls on, for fun. She's deeply embarrassed and handles the jewelry with utmost care. He walks up to her and helps put a strand of pearls on.

Kakashi rests his palms on the back of her shoulders, a beat longer than he should have. He backs away and smiles from underneath his mask when Sakura turns to him. She's wearing a red dress and the golden of the pearls contrast nicely. She asks, "Well? How does it look?"

"Beautiful," he says. And he means it, too.

—-

They have an unspoken agreement to have as much fun as possible in the city once they arrive. Paid in full, the two spend their days going into shops, buying things that catch their fancy. It helps the economy recover, Sakura rationalizes, as she buys herself another dress and Kakashi knows he's going to end up carrying most of them back home despite Sakura's insistence of her enormous strength.

They go to the bookstore and she wanders off to the non-fiction section as he checks out the romance section. Quite a few authors have been trying to pick up where Jiraiya-sama left and for the first time, it's looking promising. He's buried his nose in a book when Sakura finds him. She doesn't laugh at him, merely states that it's about time he found another book to read. Then she picks up a romance novel that has a heroine on the cover that looks suspiciously like Tsunade-sama and begins reading it on the spot too.

It's one of the best days Kakashi's had in years.

—-

They go to the most expensive restaurant in the city, dressed up in expensive rented clothes, order the most expensive food and drink on the menu, and drink themselves expensively silly. It's all so very _expensive_. For once, he tries not to think too much about the expense.

He's also trying very hard not to think other things when Sakura presses close to him on their way out of the restaurant.

(He wonders if her tongue tastes like champagne.)

—-

The businessman they just assisted has insisted that they take the new train part of the way back to Konoha. Kakashi can't help but feel a little nervous at this newfangled technology, and it doesn't help that the train itself is a monster of steel and smoke that emits loud, angry noises.

They stand at the station marveling at it. If Sakura notices his hesitation, she doesn't comment on it. She merely smiles and takes his hand. "It's amazing, isn't it?"

"I guess," he says shortly. If he thinks about it, sure, it's amazing that people still can recover from something as devastating as the last war, but here they are anyway, moving forward, almost too fast for him to catch.

"It's nice to leave sometimes," Sakura murmurs, so low that Kakashi almost doesn't catch it. "But it's even nicer to come home."

He understands her better now. Sakura didn't come with him to run away from demons. She came with him to come home. Home. He thought he lost that home a long time ago, several times over, but Sakura is tugging his hand and smiling, holding onto her new hat, and it's hard to remember what desolation feels like at that moment.

He thinks about new worlds and all the possibilities as steps on the train, leaves the old world behind.


End file.
